Seven For A Secret
by acciopigfarts
Summary: Fang leaves, leaving Max with her one secret. Can he find her and make her whole again? *Fang Spoilers* FAX 'T'
1. Realisation

**Disclaimer : I own nothing. Nada. **** as much as i wish i did**

I lay there in silence, staring up at the plain, smooth white of my ceiling. There was nothing going through my head except _FangFangFang._

I heard my door creak open almost silently, and feet gently pad across the carpet towards me.

'Max?' It was Iggy.

'Max, why won't you come out of your room? We're all majorly worried, you haven't eaten since he left, and that's been 3 weeks. Nudge is all over the place, she won't stop crying, worried that you're going to die. Angel can't pick anything up from you except 'Fang', and Dylan, well; Dylan seems to be a bit smug . . . But we're scared Max. Scared. We're scared because you're not Max the Invincible, Max the Leader anymore. You're broken. Please. Try to, uh, I don't know, forget? I just don't know what to do Max. I'm not made to be leader, _you _are.'

I felt a light touch on my shoulder, heard breathing near my ear. I did nothing. I just lay there and thought about the one secret that meant the world to me. The one thing I know held close. I took hold of it and closed my eyes, playing it out in my mind.

This was all I had done for the past three weeks. Lied here and recalled that one secret. I hadn't moved except to go to the bathroom. I hadn't left this room, I hadn't eaten. I could feel myself growing weaker by the day, but I didn't care, just so long as I had my secret.

Everyday someone came into my room to try and speak with me. Jeb, Dylan, Nudge, it changed each day. Nothing changed. I just lie on top of my covers and thought about Fang.

I knew the Flock were worried. I knew that Nudge cried every day, both for Fang and for me. I knew that Angel tried to read my thoughts, to see why I was still lying here, silent. I knew that Iggy was trying to be the leader. I knew he couldn't cope. I knew everything. I just didn't care.

Because this memory, this secret, was the only thing I had of Fang now. And because Fang wasn't going to be appearing in my life again for 19 years, 11 months, 7 days, 4 hours and 39 minutes, the only way I could keep him here with me was to keep replaying my golden memory. Over and over. Again and again.

It was all I could think of doing. 3 weeks, 20 hours and 21 minutes of this memory, and I was nowhere near done. I wouldn't be done until I could feel him in my arms, have his silky black hair weaved though my fingers, his obsidian eyes looking directly into mine. Only then would I be done.

Wait. 3 weeks, 20 hours and 21 minutes? I counted in my head. And again. And again. Oh no.

Oh no oh no oh no. This was bad.

I stood up, threw of my blankets, and yanked my window open.

And I launched myself out of it, before flying at the speed of light toward the nearest town. The only thought in my head _oh no oh god oh no._


	2. Change

**Disclaimer : I own nothing. Waaa :'(**

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Chapter 2.

Iggy silently closed the door to Max's room and walked slowly down the stairs. This happened every day. Someone (usually from the Flock), would go up to Max's room and try to speak with her. Try to make her do something more than lay on top of her bed, still wearing her fancy dress, with only a blanket to cover her. Try to make her move her eyes from that smooth, white ceiling. Then they would go into the living room alone.

Nudge would cry. Jeb and Dylan would look uncomfortable and start fidgeting. The Gasman would sit there and silently wish with all his heart for Fang to come back. Angel would search Max's mind, only to encounter her mental block of _Fang_.

Iggy thought today would be no different. He was wrong.

Sure enough, he walked into the room with no Max by his side. Nudge almost instantaneously started sobbing. Iggy sat down on the couch next to her and drew her into his arms.

'Shh, Nudge, shh. It's okay. Max is gonna snap out of it, she always has done. She's Max the leader, she's just letting her heart heal first. Shh.'

Everyone in the room knew Iggy was lying.

'Thanks.' Nudge sniffled, unusually brief, grateful that he was trying to comfort her when he was hurting too.

Everyone could tell that while Max was shut in her room, Iggy was trying to hold it together. They could see him cracking under the strain of comforting the 3 younger members of the flock. He had to be the leader, had to be everything Max and Fang did together. He tried so hard, they could all see. It hurt them to watch. They couldn't help, they were all too absorbed in their own grief. Dylan didn't want to take over, and Iggy was damned if he let Jeb try and take control.

The five other heads in the room all turned towards Angel with expressions varying from upset to strained. This was where Angel would try and decipher what was going on in Max's mind, where her small, beautiful face would glow with the glimmer of hope that the powerful seven year old nurtured within her. This was where her features would fall into a grimace as she tried not to show her weakness, tried not to cry. This was what changed.

Angel sat up straighter, as she always did. Her round face scrunched up and eyebrows furrowed as she concentrated. This would last for about 30 seconds before the hope fled her features, but today it did not flee, it transformed into something else. Angels head cocked to the side slightly, and her mouth seemed slightly pressed as her eyes crinkled with confusion.

A silence descended in the room.

'What? What is it Angel? What's happened? Has Max gotten up? Is she coming down? Has Fang come back? I mean, I know that he said he wouldn't come back for twenty years, and that it would be at Lake Mead again, but still. Angel Angel! Why aren't you saying anything? What's wrong? Speak!'

Nudge's chatter filled the silence, the small sparkle of hope delivered to her causing her to slip into her old ways before Iggy could place his large hand over her moving mouth and cut of the Nudge-Channel.

'Angel?' Iggy asked. It was obvious something had changed, but for better or for worse?

'It's Max. She, she, I don't know. Something's changed. Her thoughts are scattered, she keeps counting again and again. It's not good, she's worried, she keeps saying 'Oh no oh no'. The mental block she's been using has gone, something about a secret? It's all she's thinking about. It's so confusing, I don't know what to make of it!'

The remainder of the Flock closed in around Angel.

'She doesn't kno – Oh! She's up! She's standing!'

'Is she coming down? Is she alright? Has she snapped out of it? I'm going up to see her!' Nudge stood, turning towards the door, before Angel threw out her hand and grabbed Nudge's arm.

'No! Stop! Max has gone! She's just jumped out the window and gone! I think she's headed for town, but everything else is just a blur. We need to go get her!' Angel stared around the room with wide, glassy blue eyes as the bird-kids and Jeb sat in shock and silence.


	3. Result

**Woohoo! I'm updating twice in the same day! **

**If you have any suggestions or whatever for what to put in this story, please review and tell me! R+R **

**And if you do think I own maximum ride, well. I think you need your head checkin' ;) and I don't own Boots. I don't even know if they have Boots in the US :S but oh well **

Chapter 3.

I landed on the hot tarmac with a gentle _whoosh_ noise. I looked around me, taking in the small car park I had landed in, and the tiny high street beyond. I looked down at myself, studying the crumpled white dress I had worn to Total and Akila's wedding, and had never taken off. My bare feet stood out starkly against the ground.

I ran my thin fingers through my greasy, tangled hair as a gust of wind buffeted me. I leaned against it, trying not to go tumbling to the ground.

_Wow_ I thought. I really had gotten weak. It had taken almost everything to fly here through the gathering winds. I leaned over to glare at my reflection in a small puddle beside me.

A scruffy, skinny girl wearing a mucky white dress glared back at me. Her long brown hair hung limp and lank to her shoulders, knotted like no-one's business. Her cheek bones stood out against her dull, sunken eyes, giving her a gaunt appearance. She looked like death. She looked like how I felt.

Oh, wait, she was me.

I wrenched my gaze away from the terrible reflection on the puddle of muddy water and turned towards the high street.

I didn't care what I looked like. I didn't care that I looked like a right tramp. All that mattered was that all that I had left of Fang, the real, solid proof that he actually loved me, was being stained by this uncertainty.

And I was scared.

I trembled as I pushed open the door to Boots. I sensed the gazes of the fellow shoppers as I walked straight to the aisle I needed. I came to a stop next to a woman gazing at the same shelf as me. She turned, noticed my attire, my gaunt appearance and skittered to the side, before rushing down the aisle in a rush. _Snob_. I thought.

I stopped in shock. I hadn't been sarcastic since _he _left. Sarcasm was too normal, too me. Since that day, I hadn't been me. I had been an empty shell.

I shook my head. _Concentrate, Max. _I needed to focus on this . . . predicament I was in. I stared at the selection in front of me, wondering which to choose. I felt in my pocket. $7.00. That really wouldn't go far. I picked up the two cheapest options and made my way to the counter to pay.

Sure, I noticed the bubble of space that surrounded me. I just didn't have the energy to be bothered about it. My vision was growing hazy, and I knew I was walking in a complete zigzag. I reached the counter and tried to ignore the middle aged woman who was sneering down her nose at me.

_You don't know a thing about my life._ How dare she? She didn't have the right to look at me, and the products I was buying and automatically assume. I could practically hear her thoughts myself as I handed her my money. Put it like this. They weren't nice.

She dropped my measly change about a foot from my hand, as if she was afraid to touch me. I swept it up with a growl as I tried not to faint with dizziness before I swept out of the shop, giving her the death glare as I went.

I walked straight into the building next door without looking up. I tried not to gag as the filthy stench of the public toilets hit me. I quickly walked over to the one cubicle without water (and probably other stuff that wasn't water) all over the floor, and slammed the door shut behind me, locking it.

I took my first purchase out of my pocket and read the instructions with difficulty, still trying to keep conscious. Without even thinking, I quickly followed them, before repeating quickly with the other object I'd bought.

I shoved them both into my pockets as I stalked out of the dingy building and into the car park. I hurried towards the back of the large lot, still zigzagging. I reached the corner, and did a quick U and A, leaping into the sky.

I beat my wings with as much force as I could muster, which was not a lot. I felt my wings straining and popping in an effort to keep me air. My vision flickered and faded. I checked the tiny watch on my wrist that Fang had given to me. My time was up. It was time to destroy or preserve my precious secret.

I pulled the two pregnancy tests out of my pocket and checked them. Two tiny red plus's glared up at me. I just had enough time to put them in my pocket before I finally lost consciousness and fell.

**Okay guys, I don't think i'm gonna be able to update for a few days, so hold tight, i'll be back as soon as i can! **


	4. Alone

**Discalimer : i own nooothing **

**And thank you guys for your reviews!!!! I will now try and improve my punctuation ;) and after reading through it, some of it could make more sense :S but oh well, nobody's perfect and I shall try to improve ****and Max isn't dead yet because of her super bird kid powers ;)**

**And the beginning of this chapter is in no one's point of view, so that's why I can describe things ect ")**

Chapter 4

"Angel, can you sense Max yet?" Iggy asked?

The small Flock of four had all set of for town as soon as Angel has realised Max had gone. Now they were halfway to the nearest town, franticly scanning the grounds and skies for their missing Flock member. Jeb and Dylan had stayed behind, as Jeb definitely wasn't wanted, and Dylan still hadn't perfected his flying technique yet.

"No, I keep searching, but all I can find is you three. Either she's in town, in the high street, surrounded by people, or she's unconscious."

Iggy heard a slight tremble to her voice, and moved slightly to the left so he could brush Angel's wing with one of his own.

"I'm sure we'll find her Ange. She won't have gone far. Lets split, 'kay? Me and you can go tha-"

"ZOMG!! Is that Max?? What's that there? Over there, on the ground? It's all crumpled, and is that, is that a wing? It looks like it! I think its Max! We so have to go over there! She could be hurt! I mean, if she's lying down with her wings out, she probably fell, so is she hurt? Come on! We have to go! Lets go! I'm going guys!" Nudge interrupted Iggy with her famous Nudge-Channel, before altering the angle of her tawny wings slightly so that she was carried downwards.

Iggy, Angel and the Gasman all followed, speeding up at the prospect of finding their leader. Powerful winds buffeted them as the sky began turn a sickly grey.

_Please, please let this be Max. We need her. _Iggy silently sent the thought to the sky as he bowed his head to the gusts of freezing air.

The four bird-kids landed less than gracefully on the rocky ground, stumbling over the sharp rocks that were scattered over it. They ran towards the crumpled heap that was Max, stepping around her wings, careful not to pull out any feathers as they turned her over.

Her face was dirty and tired, covered in a light coating of grime and sweat. Her dress was torn and disgusting, covered in dust from the ground. She looked like death. Her eyes were closed, and she wasn't moving.

"Max?" The Gasman sounded scared and young, his voice thick with tears. "Max? Are you okay?"

"What are you guys doing here?"

* * *

"Max, are you okay?" I heard Gazzy ask in a trembling voice. Where was I? Ugh. My head was killing me. My wings ached, my back ached, hell, my entire body ached.

I opened my eyes to see four worried faces gazing down at me. Well, Iggy was looking at my ear, but still.

"What are you guys doing here?" I didn't even know what I was doing here. I registered dark storm clouds overhead, and a scratchy, uncomfortable ground. My wings were stretched out painfully behind me.

I sat up, my head spinning, as Iggy replied "What are we doing here? We're searching for you, that's what!" His voice started to rise as his anger took hold. "We're here because you decided to swan of to town for no reason after lying in your room like a recluse for 3 weeks! We're here because we didn't know if you were dead! We're here because we were worrying about you when you were pining after Fang! He's GONE Max, GONE! Can't you get it into your head! He isn't coming back! HE. IS. GONE!!!"

I had stayed quiet through Iggy's rant, but now I was making little whimpering sounds as tears coursed down my cheeks. My shoulders were shaking as Iggy's eyes softened and he pulled my close. I sobbed into his shoulder because he had spelled it out for me. Fang was gone. Gone. He _wasn't _coming back. For the past three weeks, I hadn't accepted that fact, I had shoved it to the back of my mind, not fully realising it. But now I knew. Now I knew that Fang was gone, and he had left me behind. Left the Flock behind.

_Left his child behind. _The thought struck me as I felt one of the positive pregnancy tests dig into my hip as I hugged Iggy tighter. I felt small hands patting my hair as I sobbed harder. Fang had left me, and now I was pregnant with his child. He wouldn't be there to hold my hand, to share my joy and my sadness. He wouldn't be there to play with his child, to watch them laugh and grow.

Sure, the Flock were still here with me, but really, I was alone.


	5. Happy

**Disclaimer : me has nothing **

**I know I'm updating twice in the same day again, but I just can't stop writing! Please read and review guys! I love you :D oh, and for the flash back, I cba to go and get the book, it's from memory, so if it's not right, that's why **

Chapter 5

After my mini meltdown on the ground, we all stood up and started on our way back to the house. I was still too weak to fly, so the Igster had to carry me. I looked up at his face from the cradle of his arms, He was kinda purple, and panting a bit. Hee hee.

He must have sensed my gaze because he said "What have you been eating, rocks?"

I sucked in a sharp breath as I looked back down.

"_What have you been eating, rocks?"_

"_Why, is your head missing some?"_

_His mouth quirked up in a smile, and that's when I realised how worried he'd been._

Iggy stayed silent after that. I don't know why. He probably realised that he had triggered some kind of memory or something.

I was just resting there. The flashback had been so strong, so violent, it had startled me. It had also brought on a fresh new wave of pain. There were so many moments, so many memories that I had forgotten about in the light of his disappearance. So many minutes and hours I wanted to repeat again and again. I wanted more of them. Fang was like a drug to me, I needed him constantly. And now he has taken himself away from me. And seriously, Cold Turkey is not my thing.

"Okay, we're here now Max." I heard Iggy say. I hadn't realised we'd arrived at the house while I was absorbed in my thoughts. He set me down.

"Thanks Ig." I said, swaying slightly. Nudge grabbed hold of my dress and steered me towards the couch. I fell on to it, gladly sinking into its warm softness.

"Uum, could I have some crackers or something please?" I asked no-one in particular. I had stopped feeling hungry ages ago, but the feeling of emptiness was just plain weird. _It's not just you that you have to think about now, you know._

Aah, hello Voice.

But it was true. The room had cleared now. I could hear someone rummaging through the cupboards for crackers. I placed my hand over my stomach.

"Hey there Baby." I could barely even hear myself; my voice was thin and cracking. I stared at my hand and what it was covering. I was having a _baby._ Mine and Fang's baby. A real, living creature was growing inside me. It would grow up and become a real person. I smoothed my still-flat stomach as if to touch my child.

"Max?" It was Jeb. I looked up. His eyes were flicking from the hand on my stomach to a section of the couch next to me. I looked down. One of the pregnancy tests had fallen out and was laying beside me, the little '+' standing out against the white plastic.

I quickly grabbed it and shoved it in my pocket again, removing my hand from my stomach.

"What do you want Jeb? Do you have my crackers?" My voice was still weak, but you could hear the old Max in it.

"Yes, uh, here they are." He said, placing a packet of dry crackers next to me with a glass of water, still staring at my stomach.

"Thanks. Now get the hell out Jeb." I didn't like the way he was staring at me. Almost, greedily. He walked stiffly out of the room before I clutched my stomach. He wanted my baby. I could see it in his eyes. He wanted it. He would take my poor baby to the school and experiment on it. Hurt it. Ruin its life.

I snatched up my food and drink and stalked up to my room before collapsing in a daze. There was no way Jeb would be getting anywhere near me and my child, I thought while eating my crackers. They tasted disgusting, but as I felt the food fill me up, I felt much better. I gulped down my water in record time before wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. Sure, we had a house now with towels and stuff, but old habits die hard.

I looked down at my dress. I felt disgusting. I stood up again on slightly trembling legs and walked to my shower. Have I mentioned how much I love hot showers? Well, I do. And since it was my first shower in three weeks, it was even more amazing.

Dripping wet and clan in only a towel, I stood before the mirror in my room. My hair was back to its usual waves, my eyes were bright once more, and even though I did look skinny, I didn't look like death. My eyes zeroed in on my stomach. I twisted and turned to the side, marvelling at the tiny difference. My stomach now had the barest hint of a curve, no-one but me would ever have noticed it. I felt . . . happy. I hadn't felt happy since I had arrived home on that fateful day to find that love filled letter that had broken me.

I was happy because even though Fang was gone, even though Jeb wanted my baby, I actually had my baby. I had someone who would be a constant reminder of the love Fang and I shared. Someone who needed me, someone who was a part of me, literally. It was _awesome._

I pulled my towel a bit tighter as I walked out of my room and stood in front of the door directly opposite. Fangs room.

I took a deep breath, and walked in. The smell was amazing. It was like he was stood here next to me. I could practically feel his strong arms wrapped around my waist. I felt a small buzz of electricity coming from my womb and placed a hand over it again. _This is where your daddy used to sleep, Baby._

I padded towards his chest of drawers and rummaged through, relishing the smell that came off of his clothes. I picked out a plain black t-shirt and black shorts and slipped them on under my towel before leaving his room to dump it in the wash basket. I turned back and closed Fang's door gently, whispering "Good night Fang."

I crawled into my bed and shut my weary eyes. I wrapped my arms around my torso as I breathed in Fang's familiar scent, dreaming that he was here with me.


	6. Leave

**Disclaimer : you know I don't own any of this stuff. **

**I know, I know, this is my 3****rd**** update in one day, but I can't stop writing! :S review review review!!! **

Chapter 6.

I was woken up at 10 am by my stomach lurching terribly. I jolted out of bed, hand over my mouth, before running to the bathroom mega fast. I'm not gonna give you the details. Let me just say this. Not fun.

So about five minutes later I'm lying on the bathroom floor, gasping for breath, cursing Fang into eternal damnation for getting me in this mess. _Men. They have it SO easy._ I grumbled, wishing I could miraculously feel better.

"Max? Is that you in there? Were you sick? Do you need anything? Like, like, Tylenol? Can I come in? Can you get u-"

"Nudge! Breathe!" I called weakly from the cold tile floor. "Yes, it is me, yes, I was sick, and no, I don't need anything."

"But, but, why were you sick?"

"I don't know Nudge, maybe I had too many crackers last night." I lied. I knew it was Morning Sickness. _Damn you Fang ._But I wasn't going to tell anyone about my pregnancy for a while yet. I didn't really know why, it just felt like the thing to do. I _would_ tell them. Just not in the immediate future.

"Oh, okay. But, uh, can you come out? I need to use the bathroom."

"Okay, sure Nudge, I'll be just a minute." I heaved myself of the floor using the cistern for support. I flushed the loo before staring at myself in the mirror. I looked like, well, me. Just a bit rough. I washed my hands and splashed my face before unlocking the door to a hopping Nudge. She darted past me and into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her.

Grabbing onto the wall, I slowly made my way to the kitchen, following the delicious smell of bacon that was wafting towards me. I shot through the door and sat down on a wooden chair to have a bacon sandwich placed in front of me. It smelled _awesome._

"God Iggy, this is delicious. Mmmnnnn" I bit into it and almost moaned. It was just amazing.

"I'm glad. It's great to see you eating again Max." I looked up at him. He looked less tight. He seemed so much more relieved, as he watched me eat with gusto. His features seemed relaxed with the knowledge that I had snapped out of my depression phase thing. He no longer had to be a leader, a mother to the Flock.

"I was thinking. I think we should –"

"Oh God, Max has been _thinking!_ We're doomed!" Iggy interrupted me with a cry.

I wacked him upside the head.

"Ow, what was that for?" I didn't think that deserved an answer, so I just carried on.

"As I was saying, I think we should go and visit my Mom." This was greeted by a chorus of whoops and cheers. The Flock must have snuck in while I was in bacon-sandwich-ecstasy.

"I don't think so Max."

"Whatever Jeb. You have no say over what we do." I looked at him just in time to see his gaze flicker from my stomach back up to my eyes. I knew why he wanted us to stay. Like heck we were.

"We're going later today, so I think we should all go pack. We're going to fly for an hour or so, then find a hotel. I'm still not 100%, so it's gonna take a while. Is all that okay?"

"No Max." I ignored that one. Concentrating instead on my Flock, and their answers of 'Yes'.

"Okay, cool, let's get busy. Oh, and Dylan, can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Uuh, sure Max." He sounded confused. He followed me into the hallway and I stood in front of him, looking up at his face. This was gonna be hard. I had to convince him to go somewhere with Jeb. I just couldn't have him around me. He wasn't pressuring or anything, but the fact that he was created to be my 'perfect other half' was still kinda disturbing. I would never, ever be with him in a million years, but I didn't like Jeb and all the others baddies expecting me too. Still, I'd already tied myself to Fang in every possible way and then some. I got an agreeing spark of electricity from deep inside me. Smiling as I thought of my child, I spoke.

"Dylan, you have to leave. I'm sorry, but I can't deal with having you around. It was hard enough with Fang here, but it really makes me uncomfortable to think that they want us to, y'know." God, this was awkward.

"What? I don't understand? Why can't I come with you? I've never made any kind of move in you! Why do I have to go with Jeb?"

"Ugh! Dylan, please try and see my side here! Jeb and all that are expecting us to, uh, _get together_" At this I blushed slightly. I'd only 'got together' once, and the memories were still strong. "And with that following me around, it's going to be distracting, and I don't want anything to distract me. I know how dangerous that can be, and that's why Fang left. Please Dylan." I could feel my eyes growing shiny as they started watering. _Damn freakin' hormones._

Dylan looked confused, but I saw him take in my teary eyes. "Uh, Okay then Max." Then he turned and hurried up to his room.

I was confused. His reaction had been unexpected. I was prepared to stand there for hours trying to prove my point. I could feel my brow creasing. I walked into my room and dug out a backpack from under my bed. I searched my possessions, every now and then shoving something into it.

Once I had finished in my room, I walked into Fangs. Just smelling his scent sent a fizzing sensation through the pit of my stomach, this time nothing to do with our child. I looked around his room as well, picking up a piece of clothing every now and again to put in my rucksack.

"What shall we take, Baby? Should we take this? I think we should. Ooh, what about this?" I knew I sounded insane, but speaking to my child while in the room of their father seemed to make it more real. This baby was half me and half Fang, and that meant the world to me.

I picked up the black t-shirt that Fang had obviously used to sleep in, picking it up and holding it to my face. I inhaled, savouring his delicious smell. I lay down in the bed, savouring the fact that this was where he had slept, that he had touched this spot, that this was the place he truly showed me how much he loved me. I pressed the top to my womb so our child could be close to him too, and let my eyes close, remembering what had happened where I lay just one month ago.


	7. Experiment

**Disclaimer : take a wild guess. I do not own anything.**

**review pleeaasseeeeee :D and I just made up the experiment numbers ;)**

Chapter 7

Jeb snuck out of the kitchen and went into his room. Making sure he was alone and that there was no-one eavesdropping on him, he went to his drawers and pulled out a tiny cell phone. He flipped it open and speed dialled '1'.

"Hello? Jeb? What do you want?"

"Hello. I have some important information on Experiment 1098 Maximum Ride."

"Really?! Well, what is it?"

"She is pregnant with Experiment 1099 Fang, Director."

"Pregnant? Hmmnnn, bring her here at once, Jeb."

"I can't director, she is planning to leave for Valencia Martinez's house later today with Experiments 1100, 1101, 1102 and Subject 11."

"Fine. Give me the co-ordinates. We shall take them once we have gathered our supplies."

"Yes, Director."


	8. Questions

**Disclaimer : god, these are tedious. .nothing,**

**I love reviews! Make me happy! :D and if I offend anyone by a character say 'Oh God' or something like that, I don't mean offense. Just wanna make sure you know that. Cos, like, my best friend is majorly religious. Read and review please **** I will give you cookies!**

**And I, uh, got some **_**strong**_** responses after the last chapter. Please, please don't kill me! *cowers***

Chapter 8

BANG!

The sharp noise broke through my beautiful dream.

"Max? What are you doing in here? What's that you're holding? Aren't you ready yet? I'm ready, I got ready straight away. I can't wait to go and see your Mom and Ella. They're so great! You're Mom does great food, and Ella will go shopping with me, and we can ha-"

I heard a slapping noise as someone shut Nudge up. I clutched Fang's t-shirt closer to my abdomen, not willing to let it go. I tried to immerse myself in the dream again; it had been so real, so vivid. Just thinking about it sent fireworks shooting through my veins.

I was startled to find tears streaking my cheeks as I sat up, allowing Fang's smell to swirl around me. I held the top to my face as I tried to hide my tears, glancing up at the door to see Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy and Angel stood there with expressions of shock on their faces. Gazzy's hand was over Nudged mouth.

"Whhuuucwynn?" Nudge tried to speak. Gazzy took back his hand as Nudge repeated herself. "Why are you crying? Max?"

"Uh, I'm not crying." I lied, my voice cracking.

"Yes, you are! You're cheeks are wet and your voice is cracking and – "

"Shut up Nudge! You and Angel and Gazzy, go make sure we've got enough food. I want to talk with Max." Iggy said. I silently thanked him.

I watched as the younger three sullenly traipsed out of the room, and as Iggy came and sat on the edge of Fang's bed. I wiped my eyes, trying to get rid of the vivid imaged that seemed to be seared on my eyelids. Me and Fang. Fang and me. On this bed. I felt a buzzing in my womb, as if my child sensed what I was thinking. A slight blush crept up my cheeks at the thought.

"Max. Do you want to, talk? About anything?" I could hear the concern, the worry in his voice. "Why were you crying?" he asked softly. His long, thin fingers brushed underneath my eyes, feeling the dampness there.

"You- I- You woke me up." I managed, choking on my words.

"Were you –were- were you dreaming about Fang?"

I couldn't even talk. I whimpered quietly. Iggy took this as a yes.

"What were you – were you – do you want to say what your dream was about?" His voice was trembling, I think he realised how shaken I was.

"I – I don't think you want to know Ig." I said, a slight smile on my mouth.

"Ah. Okay then." He flushed slightly and I laughed quietly.

"Come on then, we'd better get going, or we'll never make it to my Mom's!"

"Yep, I'm all packed, I'll see you down there Max."

He left the room, and I picked up Fang's T-shirt and my rucksack as I went into my room. I changed out of Fang's t-shirt and shorts I had worn to bed last night, and instead put on the t-shirt I had held before, and a pair of jeans.

I went down the hallway and into the kitchen.

"Come on then, let's go!" I said, looking forward to seeing my Mom and half-sister soon. We all jumped out of the door/hole thing and took of.

I felt the wind catch my wings and smiled. The storm from yesterday had gone, and the sun beat down on my shoulders. I saw the other four get into a formation behind me as we set of towards Arizona.

*two hours later*

"Guys! Hotel ahead! Lets land in that patch of tree's over there!"

We all angled ourselves and lessened our wings beatings as we landed in a mini forest thing.

"Right, Iggy, you got the Maximum Ride card?"

"Sure do." He said, handing it to me. I took it and slid it in my pocket as we walked into the hotel. It looked nothing special, a bit dingy, but it would do. We don't exactly live a life of luxury. I walked up to the front desk and leaned towards the balding man,

"Can I have two twin rooms please?" I asked, stretching myself in order to look taller.

He frowned, but gave me the keys to the rooms anyway, which I payed for with my card.

We went up using the stairs, since small spaced aren't good for us. Iggy said he'd take the floor. Aah, a day in the life of a bird kid.

*next day*

Oh, hello Morning Sickness.

That was my first thought. Unfortunately, it was probably everybody else's first thought as the walls between our adjoining rooms were kinda thin. Actually, very thin. As were the walls separating the bathroom from out rooms.

I heard Nudge get up and come out of her and Angel's room and into ours.

"Max? Are you okay? Why were you sick again? Do you have some kind of bug?"

"Nudge, please just go back to bed, I'll be out in a minute. It's probably just a bug, yeah."

I lay on the floor again, wishing this would go away. I wondered how I would cope with this for nine months. I mean, the Morning Sickness probably didn't last the whole time, but there were bound to be plenty of other symptoms. _Bleargh. I feel terrible._

_It's all part of the Pregnancy Max. You have to deal with it. It's your fault you're in this mess in the first place._

That made me mad.

_Excuse me? It is not all my fault? Did I want this to happen? NO! If you're going to blame anyone, blame Fang. _And then I mentally flipped it off.

"Max?" It was Iggy.

"Yeah?"

"You okay? Can you come out?"

"Yeah, sure, just wait a minute." I heaved myself up and swilled some water round my moyth before opening the door. Iggy immediately dragged my over to his bed and sat me down. I noticed it was just us two in the room.

"Max, were you sick yesterday morning as well?"

"Uh, yes, why? I probably just have a stomach bug or something." I couldn't have Iggy finding out about my pregnancy. I didn't want to think what could happen. It could completely change things.

"Hmmnnn. I was just wondering." He sounded doubtful.

I got up from the bed and went into the other room to start getting the three younger kids ready.

"Come on, we're going! Get dressed; we can eat breakfast in the air."

And we were off again.


	9. Telling Mom

**Discalimer : you know all this my now. I do not own maximum ride ;)**

**Okay, i've had some responses and stuff to the story, and i just wanna say, i ****want ****you to say you opinion, and give constructive criticism, because i want you to enjoy reading the story as much as I enjoy writing it **** read and review guys **

Chapter 9.

"Max!"

"Mom!" I landed on the hard ground running and flew (not literally, but y'know) into her arms, hugging her tightly. I had missed her so much. I hadn't seen her since the wedding. I inhaled her mom-chocolate-chip-cookie smell, hearing the Flock all land behind me. Mom released me, and I turned around, only to have Ella ram into me at what must have been 90 miles per hour.

"Woah, Ella!"

"Max! OMG, I've missed you so much! I haven't seen you in like, forever! Why didn't you come sooner! I've missed all of you! But you the most, It's great having you here again! We can go shopping! I mean, I know you hate shopping, but I can get you some new clothes and stuff! I've missed you Max!" I swear, that girl has been around Nudge for too long. I almost thought it was Nudge for a moment. Then she wriggled out of my hug and went to greet the rest of my Flock with Mom, a huge grin on her face.

They all hugged and did the whole I've-missed-you-It's-awesome-to-see-you thing, before Ella turned again to me, a confused look on her face.

"Where's Fang, Max?" I looked away. I didn't want to talk about Fang. Ella must have sensed that, because she dropped it, although it was obvious she would just ask Nudge about it later.

"Come on in you guys. I gotta say, you have some great timing; I just finished off a bunch of Mexican food when you turned up. Go and sit at the table on the porch and I'll bring it out for you." I smiled, my heart feeling lighter already. I loved my Mom. She was awesome.

After we had stuffed ourselves to bursting point with spicy Mexican food, which by the way, is _delicious_, we all sat down in front of the TV and just chilled.

I felt uncomfortable.

I mean, I hadn't really, really relaxed since the day Fang left. I'd always been coiled like a spring, ready to shout or scream or cry at any given moment. Plus, even though I'd only known about it for a couple of days, I wanted to tell my Mom about my baby. It felt like such a huge secret to keep, and I wanted to share it with someone. I knew that I hadn't known my Mom for long, and that she didn't know me as much as the Flock did, but she supported every decision I made, and I hoped that she would do the same for this one.

So it was with a pounding heart that I sat up and said "Mom, can I talk to you please?"

"Sure sweetie, we can go in the kitchen." Mom looked a bit confused, I hadn't purposely talked to her in private before, and everyone could hear the slight tremble in my voice.

I shot Angel a look that said 'read my Mom's mind and die' as we walked out of the room. I had no worried about her reading my mind. While I was moping in my bed, I had realised that if I was subconsciously thinking of something all the time, that's all she would find. I was quite impressed with myself to be honest.

We went into the kitchen and I shut the door behind me, checking that no-one was on the other side. I grabbed Mom's arm and dragged her to the other end of the long room, where a small bar with stools sat. We sat on these now as I looked at her, studying her worried face.

"Mom, I have something I need to tell you."

"You know you can tell me anything sweetie."

"You know that Fang left, right?" Iggy had explained all of this to my Mom and Ella earlier, when I had coincidentally been at the loo.

"Yes, is it something about him?"

"Well, yes, but, no, no, yes! Oh, I don't know!" I stuttered, cringing. This was terrible. I could feel tears forming already. Normally, I would never have cried. I could still count on one hand the amount of time's the flock had seen it. I'd never have cried over a _confession._ I was turning into such a marshmallow.

"Well," I steadied my voice; I didn't want to make this seem any worse than it actually was. "You know that me and Fang were, y'know, _together, _yeah? Well, before he left, well," I paused, trying to think of how to say it.

"What are you trying to say Max?" my Mom's voice was so soft and gentle, I just wanted to burst into tears and leap into her arms. But I didn't, 'cos I'm funny that way.

"We, we, before the wedding, no-one else was home, and we, uh," Oh great, I was stuttering, and as soon as I said the words _no-one else was home_, her eyes tightened. "We love each other Mom, and we –" _Oh, pull yourself together Maximum, _I chided myself, I had to just spit it out. "We made love, Mom, and it was my first time, and it was so wonderful and magical, and I'll never regret it, but now I'm- I'm pregnant, and he's left, and I don't know what to do. I can't raise a child on my own, and I need Fang here with me, but he's gone. I'm so confused, help me, Mom."

A single tear ran down my cheek as my Mom sat and stared at me. I couldn't read her expression. It seemed to flicker from happy to murderous then sad and back to angry again.

"You're, you're pregnant?" I nodded. "With Fang's baby?" I just looked at her. She knew the answer was yes. "I'm at a loss for words, Max."

I just stared at her, my eyes wide and glassy. Suddenly, with no warning, I stood and threw myself into her arms. I just needed someone to hold me so bad. I felt her relax her arms around me and squeeze me. I almost instantaneously felt better.

"I still think you're far too young, but I know how mature you are, and it's all been done now. It's okay, Max. I'm here for you ."

"Thanks, Mom. You don't know how much that means to me."

I felt elated. I had finally shared my burden, and it felt as if someone had lifted a weight of my shoulders. Sure, I know it sounds corny, but it really did. I hugged her back, feeling the best I had for weeks.


	10. Tree

**Disclaimer : I do not own Maximum Ride yet ;)**

Chapter 10

The days slowly blended into weeks at my Mom's house, and before I knew it, a month and a half had passed. A month and a half of flying, shopping, games, activities and whatever the heck us bird kids do in our spare time. It was a month and a half of knowing I wasn't the only one who had to carry my secret. It was a month and a half of morning sickness. It was a month and a half of Iggy collecting the information that he needed to beckon me to his room of a sunny Arizona morning.

"Max."

"Iggy."

We stared each other down. Well, I stared at Iggy while he sensed my stare and tried to reciprocate it. So he was staring at my nose with a passion. Which would have been hilariously funny if it wasn't in this situation.

"What do you want, Iggy?"

"You're pregnant." I couldn't help it. I gasped. I knew that Iggy had his suspicions, but I didn't think he would guess quite so soon. Whenever I was sick, I would run the taps so no-one would hear. When I started to show, I simply wore baggy clothes. But I should have known that nothing would have escaped his amazing ears and sensitive fingers.

"Don't try and deny it, Max. I can tell. You throw up every morning, and whenever I brush past you in the hallway, I can feel your bump. I could tell that something was up that day you went into town, and ever since we've been here you've been acting differently. How long have you known?"

"I only found out that day I went to town." My voice was no more than a whisper. I didn't know if I wanted Iggy to know yet. But I didn't get a choice in the matter. Story of my life.

"Really? Because at the wedding you and Fang were definitely acting weird, you didn't leave each other's sides once. I don't want you to lie to me, Max. Something definitely changed that day, and I don't know what else it could have been –" Iggy paused. "Was that when you-?"

"Yes." My voice was so small I was surprised he could have heard it.

"The same day? Oh, Max." He said, drawing me closer in a hug. I snuggled into his chest. Fang had left the day we, well. And it hurt that that was the day. It was almost like he left once he had achieved his great conquest. He'd gotten into my knickers and now his job was done, he could leave. It wasn't like that for me. It was like the most amazing night of my life and more. It obviously wasn't for him. He just threw it all away like it was nothing.

"I'm fine, Iggy. Really." I pulled out of his arms as he looked at me sceptically. "_Really._". I didn't want to talk about it anymore.

I walked out of his room and into the corridor.

"I'm going for a fly, guys." I yelled.

"Ooh! Max, can I come please! Please?" Angel had stuck her head around her door and was looking at me, well, angelically.

"No, sweetie, I need to think about some things, okay?"

"Sure, Max." She shut the door. I walked to the window at the end of the hallway and launched myself out of it, allowing the wind to grab my wings.

I soared upwards, angling away from the sun.

There was an old tree in the distance that I liked to perch on when things got too much, and that was where I was heading now. I landed on one of its longest branches, retracting my wings as I moved along it. I sat down with a sigh, relishing the feel of the weight of my wings and feet.

I placed my hands on my swollen stomach as I pulled my shirt up slightly to look at it better. You could definitely tell I was pregnant now. I was lucky that Iggy was the only one who spotted it. Looking at my bump now, I realised how big I had become. I was sure that I shouldn't be this big. I was only two and a half months along. If this was supposed to last nine months . . .

Wait, _was_ it supposed to last nine months? For humans, sure, but for a bird kid? Our rate of regeneration was majorly fast, and I didn't exactly look fifteen, more like eighteen. So it was definitely possible that pregnancy didn't last as long.

_I'll go and ask Mom, _I thought. I stood up on the branch, spreading my wings in preparation.

_Max! You need to get out of here, NOW!!! _Huh, Voice? I was still wondering what it meant when I felt a sickening pain explode at the back of my head, and the world went dark.

**Okay, it's a really short chapter, I know. Please don't kill me!!! And I know some of you didn't want this to happen, but it needs to for the whole plot to work **** read and review please **


	11. Fang

**Okay, I know I haven't updated in a few days, but homework is a priority, unfortunately **

**Disclaimer : I do not own Max, or any of the other characters. I do own Phoenix though.**

**And this chapter is in FANG'S POINT OF VIEW!!!!*cheer, cheer* and there isn't real lemon in this scene, but it is rather implied.**

Chapter 11

"Yo, Fang, we need to get going!" Phoenix called. I looked up at him, taking in his impatient expression and his golden eyes.

Phoenix was just one of the many experiments I had freed since I had left Max. He had long blonde hair that whipped around his face with every movement he made, and wild gold eyes. His wings were an awesome colour, dark brown fading to pure white, like an eagle. His retractable claws were neatly tucked away at the moment, but I could see him itching to snap them out and tear up a few whitecoats. Phoenix was 2 percent avian, like me, but he was also 1 percent lion, hence the claws and the eyes.

Of all the saved experiments, he was the only one who could talk and think like I could. All the other's had either died due to their messed-up bodily systems or the shock of being out of a dog crate.

We were planning to go and bust out a bunch experiments in Arizona at an old school. This was what I had been doing for the past two and a half months. Ever since I had left the Flock, I had been trying to help out max as much as I could on her mission, and I was starting out with the experiments.

As I took off, I couldn't help but let my thought's wander back to Max. She would hate me. I left her, I left the Flock, and I was a coward enough to say to meet up again in twenty years. God, I was such a prick. But there was nothing I could do now for twenty years, except recall all of the amazing time's I had had with the Flock, with Max, until I could finally see them again.

Max. She deserved to hate me, after what I had done. I had staked my claim on her in the most intimate way possible and then left her within ten hours. I hadn't meant to do it. But Max caught me by surprise, and it felt so _right, _I just couldn't stop.

It had been the morning of the wedding, and everyone else had been out doing a bit of last minute shopping. I had woken up late, and was just lying in bed when Max came in, a freakin' huge tray of food in her hands.

"I brought us breakfast." She had said, a small smile on her face. I had sat on top of the covers and patted the space next to me. We had eaten the food in silence, sneaking small glances at each other every few seconds.

We finished in record time, and I had stared into her eyes for what had seemed like an eternity. Wow, that was mushy, I had thought. But I didn't think any more after that, because then she pounced. We twisted and turned as we fell onto the bed, our mouths pressed together.

Her hands had slipped under my shirt and were now pressed against my bare chest as I had my hands holding her hips against mine. We rolled so I was on top, and I felt more than heard Max moan. She had blushed furiously as I smirked and kissed her harder.

Max rolled us over again so she was on top and placed her knee between my legs. I stopped kissing her, staring in shock as she grinned impishly and began to kiss me again.

"Max, stop." I had tried to plead with her, but she wouldn't listen.

"Why? We both want to, it's obvious." She breathed against my mouth, jiggling her leg and making me groan.

"I don't want to go too far, Max, I- I" I didn't continue, because Max had forced her tongue inside my mouth and had begun lifting my shirt.

And that's when I stopped thinking all together.

And here we were.

I shook my head to clear my thought's as I called to Phoenix.

"Dude, School's up ahead, time to go down."

We both angled our wings at the same time as we headed down to finish what I had started.

**I know, I know it's short, but it's late, and I don't want to give too much away. Review please guys! **


	12. Torture

**Disclaimer : You know the deal. Me not own Max.**

Chapter 12

I was woken by a shark pain in my side and a throbbing in the back of my head. _Ugh. I feel like crap._

I sat up as the memories came rushing back to me, standing on the tree, a sickening pain at the back of my head.

I looked around frantically, searching for the Flock. I was met with the smooth white plastic of a Kanine Kamper, size large. The pain in my left side was caused by a large boot swinging into my open crate and kicking me, hard. The boot then retracted itself and the door was closed as I heard Nudge.

"Max? Max? Is that you? Are you okay? Why are we here? Why do they want us? I thought we had gotten rid of the school! So why have we been captured? Max!" I crawled to the front of my tiny prison to see four identical crates lined up in front of me. Nudge was pressed to the front of hers, gripping the bars tightly. Iggy was sat staring in the direction of me with a hopeless look on his face. Gazzy and Angel were silently communicating with each other.

"I don't know Nudge," My voice was weak and raspy, how long had they had me for? "And I'm fine. When were yo-"

I was cut off by a smooth, deep voice. "They don't know? Oh, Maxie, you silly girl. You should know by now to share everything with your Flock."

I stared up in shock through the metal bars of my cage. The whitecoat talking was hidden in shadow, but I could hear his voice as clearly as if he were stood next to me.

"I think we should tell them, don't you, Maxie? I think we should tell them now." He turned and snapped his fingers at a pair of whitecoats standing next to my cage. "Get her."

I was roughly dragged out of my Kamper and dragged into a standing position.

"You see, Flock, Maxie here hasn't been completely honest with you." The man continued. I stared helplessly at the Flock, unable to fight back due the drugs they must have injected me with while I was unconscious.

"We know that Fang left, but before he did, he and Maxie got to know each other very well, didn't you?" The man stepped out of the shadows and I gasped, it was Jeb. He looked at the two whitecoats holding me and nodded.

They turned me so I was facing the wall next to my family and yanked my baggy shirt up, exposing my baby bump to them. I looked down at it, my face burning with shame. It looked bigger than it had while I was in the tree. This made me worry even more about the speed of my pregnancy, but my thoughts were interrupted when Jeb spoke again.

"Yes, Max is pregnant, but she never told you. _She_ is the reason you have all been recaptured. Now we are going to take you to a different School from Max while we examine her and the baby. Enjoy." He smiled a smug smile at me as he turned and left the room, signalling for me and my two guards to follow.

I glanced back at the shocked Flock, mouthed _I'm sorry, _and was gone.

***

Torture. That was what those sick, those sick, _people_ put me and my baby through. Months and months of torture.

They would make me run for hours on treadmill, jog through endless mazes, drink radioactive drinks, all with monitors on my poor child, to see how it reacted. Which, incidentally, when you are hugely pregnant, is no bundle of laughs.

I would be given various amounts of food to see how the baby coped with it, and god only knew what they kept injecting me with.

Then, once they had tortured me for hours, they would shove me in a crate, wires glued to every available part of my body, and make me wait. _For days._ If it wasn't for my baby, I would have just given up right there, because in case you didn't know, I _hate _waiting.

Take right now, for instance.

I was strapped to a cold metal bed, my wrists and feet bound to it with manacles. My huge stomach loomed over me, and I stared at it longingly, wishing I could rub it, feel my baby through my skin. Almost as if it could hear me, it kicked. I winced, smiling slightly.

My baby had first kicked a couple of months ago. Instead of making me happy, as it should have done, I had cried.

My baby's first kick should have been shared with me and the baby's father, Fang. It shouldn't have been just me, alone in a dog crate.

Almost instantaneously whitecoats had rushed in dragged me into yet another white room before laying me down and testing my baby again and again. It had been torture.

So here I was now, trying to communicate with my baby when Jeb walked in.

"What do you want this time, traitor?" I spat at him. He looked at me blandly, showing no emotion.

"What do you think, Max?" I didn't answer. I knew he meant more tests. I closed my eyes as he came over to me and began the routine I knew so well.

Wash my body, then glue the little sticker things all over my baby bump. Check all the machines are working properly, then flick them on and wait for them to stop wheezing. Prepare all the needles and their various contents.

I heard Jeb humming as he did his work. _Humming! _How could he bear to do something to normal while I was suffering so much? When I had realised he had captured me and the Flock, I wouldn't look at him. I'd loosened up some now, but that was the only way to make the torture end quicker.

Jeb walked up to my side and started cleaning a small section of my arm with a ball of cotton wool, preparing me for the first injection.

With my supersonic bird hearing, I heard a faint crash in the distance.

My eyes opened of their own accord, and my head jerked up to see Jeb still concentrating solely on my arm; he obviously hadn't heard anything.

Then I heard it again, along with shouting. Jeb definitely heard it that time, because he put down the needle and turned toward the door.

"Wha-?"

But he was interrupted by a tall, lanky boy around my age bursting through the door, golden eyes shining as he looked me over saying,

"Man, this is _sick._"

And that's when I fainted.

**Whaddaya think? Review review review! :D and I know it's early, but can you guys think up some baby names? :)**


	13. Found

**Disclaimer : I own only Phoenix **

**And OMG!!!! 44 reviews!! That's amazing guys!!!! And I know it hasn't happened yet, but can you think up some baby names? if they were somehow related to wings, flying ect that would be awesome **** I know what the sex is gonna be, but I don't want you to know until it happens, so boy and girl names are welcome ****!!! Please review **

Chapter 13. (Fang's POV )

_Smash! _

The door exploded inward with an ear splitting crash as Phoenix and I kicked it down. A bunch of whitecoats preparing God knows what turned and immediately started shouting at the top of their lungs as they started towards us.

There were about twelve of them, so they thought they could take us.

It was so easy, I almost fell asleep in the middle of it.

I drop kicked one, then did a couple of round house kicks and felled a few more. Phoenix took out about eight of them with his claws, shredding them as they glowed crimson in the light.

I shoved my hand against the last's chest, hearing ribs snap. _God, it's almost like they're made of paper_. I thought.

We shoved through a few more doors as we headed towards where we knew the experiments were kept.

We weren't expecting there to be any experiments like me or Phoenix, just one or two of the failed attempts. This was the smallest School we had busted, and was somewhere in Utah, on the border between it and Arizona.

I guess we expected to find maybe one experiment, only to have it die of shock or something, and kill a few whitecoats. I could never have predicted this.

We ran down a long, white hallway, cringing at the antiseptic smell. We burst through the doors, smashing them in our haste. There was one, lone, empty cage in the centre of the room, surrounded by machines and wires. _Poor thing._ It was obvious this poor experiment never got a moments peace.

"Yo, look." Phoenix pointed to a door at the end of the room. 'Experiment Testing', was on a plaque above the handle. Over the door, a small green light was open, and tiny sign said occupied.

We looked at each other and nodded, moving towards it silently.

We crept up to it, and I signalled that Phoenix should go in first, while I kept watch.

He took a step back, then unfurled his wings and propelled himself through the air feet first, blasting the door of its hinges.

I heard two gasps, one loud and the other fragile and weak, before Phoenix said "Man, this is _sick._"

Phoenix never said anything like that. From him, it must mean something terrible and disgusting. I got up out of my crouch and turned to walk through the door way.

What I saw took my breath away. It stopped my heart. It made the world fall of its axis and spin out of control.

Max. Max, lying there, bruised and bloodied, looking like death. Max, with receptors stuck all over her body. Max, lying there unconscious.

Max, lying there with a huge pregnant bulge.

I stared.

And stared.

A huge tidal wave of guilt roared up and took me as I stared at her bump. I had done this to her. _What have I done? _

Phoenix knew all about Max, and it must have been obvious on my face that it was her, as he placed a hand on my shoulder.

I heard a shuffling, and wrenched my gaze from the broken girl lying in front of me to see the person I now hated most in the world.

Jeb had shuffled to the back of the room, and now seeing my murderous expression, tried to bolt for the door.

But I got there first.

I grabbed his by his stupid white collar and slammed him against the wall, before punching him square on the nose.

"You," punch "sick," punch "evil" punch. I couldn't think of a word that would sum up for what I felt right then, so I just punched him in the stomach. Over and over.

I lost count of how many times I punched that heartless _thing,_ but eventually, when he had been out cold for a while, I stopped and leaned against the wall panting.

Phoenix looked at me, golden eyes wary. "You have serious issues, man,"

I smirked at him, before pushing of the wall and heading towards Max.

I took in a breath as I examined her wounds. She was bruised, scratched, and obviously exhausted.

Oh, and heavily pregnant.

With my child.

_Woah._ That thought had hit me like a train. A child. My child. It was mind blowing.

I unstrapped her and took her in my arms, careful not to jostle her too much. I signalled for Phoenix to take the lead, and he smashed a window before jumping out of it.

I followed quickly, but not before I felt a small kick against my arm.

I smiled, despite the truly rubbish situation we were in.

We flew like the Concorde to out hidden cave, and I set Max down on my blankets gently.

"Phoenix, go and get the first aid kit, and food, lots of it." I didn't even look up.

I saw the first aid kit placed down next to me and heard Phoenix take off in search of food.

I stared at the tan coloured ceiling, letting a tear roll down my cheek. I had done this to Max. I had ruined this beautiful, strong girl.

"Fang?"

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	14. Together

**Disclaimer : why do i keep doing these? Oh yeah, i don't own anything.**

**I HAVE 62 REVIEWS!!!!! IM LIKE 'AAAAAAHHH!'**

**I love you guys! **

**Keep thise baby names comin' **

**Oh, and to The black albino sheep, Fang didn't exactly ruin her himself, but he got her pregnant, which got her into the school, which ruined her, so he feels responsible in that way **

**On with the chapter!**

Chapter 14.

I felt something wet drip onto my face.

_What are they doing to me now?_ It was probably some sick experiment at the school, where they were dripping acid on my face or something disgusting like that.

But then it happened again, except on my mouth.

It was salty.

_Tears?_ I opened my eyes slowly, wincing even at the dim light.

I saw a dark figure kneeling next to me, face turned up to the ceiling.

Sure enough, tears were steadily dripping of the chin of the figure and onto my face. I saw dark, obsidian eyes, thick black hair. I noticed they, no, _he, _was wearing all black clothes.

I sniffed.

The smell hit me like a tidal wave, as I recognised the scent I loved more than anything.

"Fang?"

He looked down. His eyes were rimmed red , and I could see a whole mixture of emotions playing out on his face. Sadness, happiness, guilt, anger.

I gasped loudly, it was _him._ He was here, right next to me.

I sat up, trying to manoeuvre around my bump, feeling slightly dizzy. Thankfully, yesterday had been one of the few days I was given a full meal, so I didn't feel too weak.

"Is that you?" My voiced cracked with the emotion I was feeling.

He nodded, drinking in my face as I was his. Wait, Fang, _crying?_

"Wha-?"

But I was interrupted by Fang spilling out words like there was no tomorrow.

"Oh, Max! Max! I'm so terribly, unbelievably sorry. I shouldn't have left, none of this should have happened! It's my entire fault, I was the one who got you into this mess, and none of it should have happened. You probably hate me now, Max, and I don't blame you. I ruined your life, and it's all my fault, and even though you shouldn't, please forgive me."

More tears were leaking out of his eyes then, as he looked at me with a desperate expression.

I turned, and grabbed onto the wall before hauling myself up.

I tuned to see Fang standing also, looking like he was torn between standing still and reaching out to hold me.

I steadied myself, and looked into his eyes.

Then I slapped him.

"That was for leaving me."

I slapped him again.

"That was for getting me pregnant."

"Max, I deserve this, and I'm so sor-"

I placed a finger over his mouth, interrupting him.

"But _this, _is for finding me."

That's when I pounced.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist, with great difficulty due to my bump, I might add, and started kissing him furiously.

I could taste his tears mingled with out kiss, and murmured against his mouth "It's okay, Fang. I forgive you."

In my opinion, he didn't need forgiving anyway. I mean, sure, I wished he never went away, but he only did it to protect me.

I deepened the kiss.

"Max," Fang pulled away, before setting me on the floor. "Let me clean you up first."

His tears had dried, and I saw a faint glimmer of hope on his features. I smiled slightly, then winced as the baby kicked. Hard.

"What is it, Max?" Fang asked urgently, fussing over me.

"Nothing, just a kick." Fang placed his hands on my stomach as it kicked again.

"This is your daddy, Baby." I spoke in a whisper, but Fang heard me and looked up, a blinding smile on his face.

I didn't even think he was capable of such a smile.

He moved away to pick up a first aid kit, and opened it beside me before dabbing at my various scratches with antiseptic. We both winced at the smell.

After I had been cleaned up, I sat on his lap, with our hands on our baby, as I told him everything that had happened since he had left.

I explained about my moping, and finding out about my pregnancy. I told him about telling my Mom, and having Iggy find out. When I got to the part where Jeb exposed me to the Flock, my voice cracked slightly, and he hugged me tighter.

I described what the whitecoats had done to me, wanting him to everything. I saw his eyes tighten, and anger flash through them as a though struck me.

"What happened to Jeb? Not that I care or anything, I was just curious."

I watched as his mouth worked, before saying,

"Let me put it this way, he won't be waking up for a while."

I smiled a little, and snuggled into his chest. I got another kick, and felt Fang grin into my hair as he felt it too.

He then told me all about his attempts to help me with my mission. He told me about the Schools he's raided, and the experiment he's found.

We were talking about the baby, revelling in its existence, when the boy with golden eyes soared into the cave.

I stood up immediately, tensed and ready for battle, before Fang grabbed my hand and pulled me down to him again so I was sitting in his lap.

"This is Phoenix. He's 2 percent bird, like us, but also 1 percent lion. I found him at a School in California, a few weeks after I left. He's been helping me raid the School's."

I looked down, ashamed at my reaction.

"Uh, sorry Phoenix." I muttered.

He smirked at me, saying, "It's okay, Max. Anyway, I was expecting it. I've heard all about you," I glared at Fang. "But, I haven't heard about _that._" He pointed to my baby bump.

I felt a heat flare up next to me, and turned to see Fang a bright red. I started laughing; Fang was _blushing!_ He looked back at me, and started chuckling lightly too. I smiled.

"Well, sorry to break up the lovebirds, but I got food." Phoenix was wearing a full blown grin now, staring at me and Fang.

My gaze zeroed in on the bags he was carrying. He laid all of the food on the dusty cave floor, and I moved over to it, proceeding to eat with gusto.

I was in the middle of a Kit-Kat when I heard flapping.

I froze, and felt Fang tense beside me. He got up and went to the edge of the cave, a worried expression on his face.

He signalled to Phoenix to take me to the back of the cave, and I let him take my arm and gently lead me to the dank darkness I had woken up in.

I stared at Fang, watching as he leaned out into the open air slightly, wishing I was there to help protect him. I would have been there like a shot, but I had my baby to think about as well.

Then Fang turned to me, a huge, and I mean huge grin on his face. I swear, that boy hadn't smiled so much in his life than the last hour.

"Max, come here." He held out his arm, and I walked forward to grab his hand.

I looked out of the cave and into the sunlight, focusing of four blobs that seemed to be growing larger by the second. Confused, I focused more, watching as they took on a shape. They looked like birds, I could clearly see their wings.

But, wait. Bird didn't usually wear jeans, right?

I watched as they grew bigger and bigger, before they eventually landed on the lip of the cave.

I looked at the Flock, a huge smile on my face and tears in my eyes.

Then they all rushed forwards and enveloped me and Fang in a huge Flock hug.


	15. Emotions

**Disclaimer : I own Phoenix, and no-one else.**

**I HAVE 75 REVIEWS!!!! EEEEEEE!!!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!**

**Okay, this is really random, but i realised that if you have Fang and Nudge, you get Fudge! Lol**

**On with the chapter!**

Chapter 15.

"How did you guys escape? How did you find us?" I asked the Flock.

We had finished the big group hug, and were currently eating on the cave floor. Phoenix was sat about a foot away, looking slightly out of place. The Flock knew all about him, and seemed eager to welcome him into our family, but he still seemed out of place.

"Well, there was only one whitecoat looking after us, so it was really easy. I think they only took us there to worry you. I mean, sure, they did some experiments, but they weren't that bad, because there was only one. The worst bit's were where he just didn't come in, but apart from that, it wa-"

"We basically kicked our cages open and took the guy. Then Angel sensed your minds, so we came here." Iggy interrupted Nudge bluntly, a blank expression on his face. I think he was mad at Fang. Actually, I _knew_ he was mad at Fang, since he kept sending him Death-Glares.

"Iggy, what's wrong?" I asked quietly. I didn't want his anger to bubble over and turn into something horrible, like a fight.

"What's wrong? What's _wrong, _Max, is that Fang got you _pregnant, _before leaving the same day, broke you, and now decides to swan back into our lives." Iggy's voice was quiet and bitter, yet everyone heard.

Silence fell in the cave, and Fang turned to face Iggy.

"I've already apologised for everything Iggy. I doubt I could feel guiltier right now if I tried. What else do you expect me to do?" Fang was almost silent as he spoke.

Iggy didn't reply; he just turned his head away in disgust. I looked down, cradling my stomach. I just wished everything could be back to how it was before Fang had left.

I felt a tear slide down my cheek, and silently cursed my hormones. I shifted my shoulder, allowing my limp hair to swing in front of my face. More tears followed the first as I tried not to let my shoulders shake.

This _sucked._ I was heavily pregnant, the Flock was fighting, and we were stuck in a cave. I probably couldn't fly, so we would be here until the baby was born, or someone carried me. My hormones were raging out of control, and I didn't know whether to cry, scream or strangle someone.

"Max?" Fang was leaning toward me now, concern on his face.

I refused to look up and show him my tears. But then he gently took my chin in his hand and pulled my face up, exposing my red eyes to everyone.

"What is it, Max?" His eyes flashed with pain and guilt as they looked unto mine.

I yanked my head away and stood up, using the wall for support. I sensed everyone's gaze on me as I wobbled slightly, before turning towards the cave entrance.

"Max." Fang made to get up, reaching out his arm. I quickly side stepped it and ran, well, ran as fast as a heavily pregnant fifteen year old bird kid could run.

Before anyone could catch me, I had launched myself into the air, wings flapping furiously. I could feel them straining under the added weight, but I didn't care.

I just needed some time to think, to get my mind ordered up again. Everything had happened so fast, and all at once. I had a throbbing headache, and just wanted some time to think.

But no. I heard Fang leap out after me first, shouting me name. Then the rest of the Flock followed behind, with Phoenix taking up the rear.

I could feel my strength fading, so I glided down to a twisted tree and settled myself in its branches.

Fang landed next to me, his emotionless mask replaced with a wall of worry. He rubbed my shoulder and brushed my hair back.

"Max, what's wrong?" Everyone else had landed by then, peering at me with concerned faces.

I felt my emotions bubbling under the surface. "Everything's wrong, Fang! Iggy hates you! I'm pregnant! I've been tested, experimented on, and God knows what else! I'm going to have to give birth in cave because I can only fly for a minute at a time! _Everything is wrong Fang!_"

I was breathing heavily, with a murderous look on my face. It had felt so good to let it out, but now I had, I didn't know what to do. I felt tears welling again, but didn't have the energy to stop them this time.

I leaned into Fang's shoulder beginning to sob. The Flock leaned down to me, patting my back and stroking my back. I bet I was there for a solid five minutes, sobbing like a big ol' weenie.

I leaned back, wiping my eyes. "God, I'm such a marshmallow." I said, smiling slightly. My voice was still weak from crying, and I sounded about five.

"Max, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to upset you. I wasn't thinking, I shouldn't blame everything on Fang." Iggy looked down at me, 'sorry' etched in every line on his face, with an abashed expression.

"It's okay, Ig. I guess it's just the hormones." I chuckled slightly, and Fang hugged me tighter against his chest.

Iggy smiled slightly, and I looked around at the other Flock members. Nudge and Angel were sat next to each other with worried expressions, but when they saw me looking, they both smiled a little. Gazzy was next to Iggy, looking slightly uncomfortable. I smiled at him, and he smiled too, looking a little better. Phoenix was on the branch furthest away from me, looking very out of place. I gave him a smile also, and felt relieved when he seemed to relax. I didn't want him to feel unaccepted with us.

I was feeling better already, although more than slightly embarrassed after crying _again._ I could only cope with so much emotion in one day.

I looked up at Fang.

"Can we go back to the cave please?" I was so tired, and I just wanted to lie down and sleep for the next century.

Then I felt a strange, warm sensation, uh, _down below._

_Oh God, what is it this time?_ I thought. I looked down, only to be confronted with my sopping wet jeans.

"Wha-?" I was cut off by an excruciating pain in my stomach.

I looked up at Fang, my eyes wide.

"_Fang, my water's have just broken!" _


	16. Arrival

**Disclaimer : The only things I own are Phoenix and the yet to be named baby **

**And im sorry if the details aren't right. I've never been in labour, so yeah.**

Chapter 16

Fang's mouth dropped open and he kept blinking repeatedly, looking at me as if I had grown two heads, or something.

If I wasn't on the verge of giving birth, I would be rolling around on the floor, holding my sides. He looked like a demented owl.

I waved my hand in front of his face and he leaned back, seeming to come back to reality again.

Without a word, he swept me into his arms and began flying the short distance back to the cave. I squirmed in his arms, uncomfortable in my wet, heavy jeans. The pain had passed, but I didn't know how long it would be before another came to take its place. I rubbed my stomach as Fang landed and carried me to the back of the cave.

He laid me down on a few blankets before barking out orders.

"Iggy, Gazzy and Angel, go into town and get whatever you can find, baby grows, diapers, bottles, blankets, stuff like that. Nudge, get to the nearest place with a computer and print of any information we might need. I'm trusting you to go on your own. There's a city about a half mile away from here, go there. Phoenix, I need you to help me here. Some warm water would be good."

Fang didn't take his eyes of me once, and as soon as everyone had left, he was stroking my hair of my face and murmuring to me.

"This is gonna hurt, Max. Oh God, I'm so sorry. I can't believe I've done this, Oh God – "

I placed a finger over his lips.

"Stop. Apologising. I'll be fine. I've had ribs broken before and I haven't cried, Fang. Now stop being such a sissy and help me out of these jeans."

He smiled slightly at my response, before shuffling down to pull off my jeans and panties. He threw them into a corner, then got up and went to a pile of blankets by the opposite wall. He picked them all up and walked over to me to shove them behind me, propping me up.

"Gee, I should have babies more often. I'm getting so much attention." I smiled at Fang, and he gave me a signature half smile back. But then I clutched my stomach and started whimpering as another contraction hit. Fang started, then grabbed my hand and started stroking my hair.

After it had gone, I asked "How long was it in between?"

"Uh, about five minutes, why?"

"Because at my Mom's house, I changed onto this channel for a minute, and it was going on about the shorter the time between them, the sooner you'll have the baby or something. I didn't really get it."

His face was tight with worry, but we both jumped as Phoenix returned carrying a bucket of water. How he managed to fly without spilling it all is beyond me.

He noticed my, ah, less than dressed lower half and averted his eyes as he gave the bucket to Fang.

"Here you go, is there anything else you want me to do?" His voice was strained.

"No, man. It's okay at the mo'."

He went to sit at the entrance of the cave silently, looking stiff and uncomfortable. I felt really bad for him. He'd been rescued by Fang and as he was just used to freedom, he'd forced into the Flock. But I stopped feeling sorry for him as another contraction hit.

And that's how it went on for an hour or so. Phoenix sitting silently. Me whimpering every five minutes, and Fang trying to comfort me. It was driving me_ insane._

The rest of the Flock arrived then, with the information and supplies Fang had sent them to get.

They laid everything on the cave floor, then went to join Phoenix. Nudge handed the information she had gotten to Fang.

He read in silence, his lips moving to form the words he was reading.

"Okay, from what this says, we have to wait until your, uh, dilated? Whatever that means. And your contractions are really close together. Then you push." He looked very confused. "I don't get any of this, Max."

"Neither do I. I guess I'll just have to go on instinct. Oh, goody. _Not."_

Then I had another contraction. I looked up at Fang, my eyes wide. "There was only just over a minute then." I was scared now.

I was in a cave with a mind reader, a blabber mouth, an atomic fart machine, a blind pyro, Phoenix, and Fang. And I was having a baby. With no pain meds, no help of any kind.

I swear, I have never had _any_ luck in my entire life.

"Fang, I'm scared." I whimpered as another contraction hit.

"I know." He looked as scared as I felt. Then I had the most overwhelming desire to _push._

Going on instinct, I did, then screamed as the worse possible pain exploded through me.

Fang leaped into the air at my scream, and mopped my sweaty forehead with a wet blanket. The Flock turned to look at me, worry on their faces.

I got another contraction, and screamed again as I pushed. Tears were rolling down my face, and I was ready to kill Fang for getting me in this mess.

I won't scare you with all the details, but after about fifteen minutes of _Hell, _the pain got even worse. I mean, I didn't even know that pain such as this existed.

Fang wasn't by my side now; he was by my feet, a pained expression on his face,

"I think, I think, Oh God, I can see the head, Max!" He kneeled up and took of his black hoodie in record time.

"Fang, I am going to KILL YOU!" I screamed as I pushed once more. The pain got so bad I almost blacked out, then it stopped suddenly, and Fang gasped.

A baby's crying filled the cave.

I looked up to see Fang cradling out baby in his black hoodie. He looked up at me with a few tears in his eyes. He smiled so big, it lit up the entire cave. "It's a girl."

He crawled over to me and placed out screaming baby in my arms. She had a tuft of jet black hair, and had her eyes screwed up tight. Her tiny, perfect mouth was open in a perfect 'O' as she cried, miniature tears running down her cheeks. As soon as I held her, though, she instantly quietened. She opened her eyes and looked straight at me. She had the most beautiful eyes. I know it sounds soppy, but they really were awesome. They were the colour of the sea, a rich, deep blue.

I looked up at Fang, his arms around us both. "Her eyes, they're blue."

"They'll change in a few weeks. The sheet said so." He nodded his head to the paper lying next to me. He leaned away for a second before placing a blanket over my legs. He looked into my eyes, smiling.

I tucked the hoodie in tighter around her as I heard the Flock getting up. Nudge and Angel got to me first. They ran up and immediately started 'aww' –ing over her.

"ZOMG! She's so cute! She looks exactly like you Max! But why are her eyes blue? I thought they wou-"

"She looks like Fang more that Max." Angel interrupted Nudge. This ensued in a 'Max', 'Fang', fight.

"She's really cute." Gazzy said in quiet voice. I glanced up at him to see a slightly amazed look on his face.

Phoenix and Iggy had remained silent. Iggy was standing there, obviously wishing he could see.

"You want to hold her, Iggy?" He smiled, and reached down. I passed her to him, even though I just wanted to hold onto her forever. She got passed around and held by everyone, even Phoenix. I just snuggled into Fang more and tried not to fall asleep.

My eyelids were drifting closed when I heard her crying.

I was awake instantly. "What's wrong with her? Is she hurt?" I looked to Gazzy, who was holding her.

"No, she just started crying!" He looked scared as I looked at him. I tried to look less murderous as I reached over to take her back.

I don't know how, maybe it was just motherly instinct, but I had a feeling she was hungry. I put my finger near her mouth and she stopped crying and began sucking on it.

"She's hungry." I gave everyone but Fang meaningful glances which said _go away._

They moved to the front of the cave again as I fed her. After a little while she stopped suckling and closed her eyes. Fang turned and took her out of my arms.

"Go to sleep. I'll clean her up."

And I fell into a deep, deep sleep with a huge smile on my face.

**Like it? I think it could have been better, but I don't really know how to write about labour :S**

**I think I'm gonna call her Sky, Skye or Raven. What do you guys think? Any other suggestions will be welcome as well **

**Review please! **


	17. Skye

**Disclaimer : I only own Phoenix and the baby **

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**To The Albino Black Sheep : sorry, but i gotta say this. You passed out? ;)**

**And to AdrianaJ : No, i did not. In fact, i'm pretty sure i was tomato red too **

Chapter 17

I was woken by the sound of crying. I rolled over, feeling blankets twist beneath me. I sat up to see Fang doing the same beside me. He looked down at the space beside me.

I did the same to see our baby crying on the floor. She was wrapped in a cream, fluffy blanket. Her face was cleaner than before and her hair was no longer matted, it was fluffy and sticking out at random directions.

I smiled before picking her up and holding her close to my chest. I sniffed. Ew.

"Can you get me some diapers or something?" I whispered to Fang. He went to the other side of the cave to get them while I laid her down on my legs. I vaguely noticed that I was wearing my jeans again, and they were dry. _Wow, I must have been out of it._ We were trained to wake at the slightest noise of touch. Speaking of which, I looked around to see the Flock awake, but trying to sleep again. I smirked slightly. Sleepless nights were going to be frequent from now on.

I took of the blanket to see that Fang had dressed her in a little black romper suit with smiley faces. _"Black?"_ I mouthed at Fang. He smirked at me as he walked back with a selection of items.

I took of the romper suit and paused. I'd never done this before, and I wasn't sure of what to do. Fang gently leaned over and took her from me, laying her on a blanket as he cleaned her up quickly and thoroughly. I watched him as he worked, memorising what I needed to do.

She had stopped crying by then, and Fang lifted her up to cuddle her close to him. I looked at her bare back. She had wings identical to Fang's, except miniature. They shone purple in the moonlight and I smiled. Fang noticed what I was looking at and his look turned smug. He shuffled closer to me and placed our baby in my arms, then wrapped his own around me.

She started to whimper again and I began to feed her. I murmured to Fang "She needs a name."

He looked at me. "I was thinking, maybe, Raven, because her wings are black like one." He smirked again.

"Hmmnn, I like it. Maybe we should ask the Flock in the morning, see if they can think of anything." Our baby had fallen asleep by then, so I laid her on her blanket once more and wrapped her up. Then I lay down on one side, with Fang on the other. The last thing I saw before I went to sleep was the most important things in my life in front of me.

*Next Morning*

"Max, the baby's crying again." Gazzy whined. It seemed the novelty of having a baby had worn of quickly.

"That's because she wants a cuddle, don't you baby?" I stood up and picked her up, clutching her to my chest. She quietened instantly. "Is there any food?"

Gazzy pointed to a bag on the floor and I walked over to it, pulling out a sandwich. I was eating it when I spoke to the Flock. "Me and Fang were thinking of naming the baby Raven, but we wanted to know if you had any suggestion?" My uncertainty made it a question.

"Oooh! Me and Nudge were talking about this! What about Skye? You know, S-K-Y-E." Angel said, bouncing on the balls of her feet. I considered it. Skye. Hmmnnn. It seemed to fit. Even though she had black hair and wings, Skye suited her.

Angel could obviously read my facial expression. "Are you going to call her Skye? I really like that name, I think it suits her!" She smiled at me.

I looked at my baby at my chest. She was staring at me with her wide blue eyes. I looked up at Fang. "Skye?" He nodded, smiling.

I brought my baby, Skye, up to my face. "Hello, Skye." She smiled a cute, baby smile and I kissed her. Fang walked over to us and kissed Skye on the forehead.

_**How touching, Max.**_

Ah. Hello again Voice.

_Touché. What do you want, Voice? _I had grown still and was staring out of the cave. Fang mouthed _"Voice?" _and I nodded.

_**You still haven't saved the world, Max. You need to do it before it's too late.**_

_Yes, that's _wonderful, _but one tiny problem. I don't know _how.

_**There are still several branches of Itexicon that need to be destroyed. Start with them. They will hold the details of what you need to do next. But that's not all. Jeb has told Itex about Skye and they want her badly. They will stop at nothing to get her.**_

_If they come anywhere near my baby I'll rip their poxy heads of. _I growled inside my head.

_**That may be, but it will take more than that to stop them.**_

_What will it take? _Surprise surprise, the Voice _did not answer_. I looked up at Fang. He was staring at me, his arms still around me, with a blank expression.

"The Voice says I still have to save the world, and soon. I have to go and kill of the remaining Itex branches. And they want Skye. Badly. Apparently they will stop at nothing to get her." By the end, my voice was a whisper, and the cave was in silence. Fang's eyes had tightened so much I was surprised they weren't hurting, and his grip on me and Skye was verging on uncomfortable.

"We need to get going." Fang was slipping back into his old ways of not talking too much. He went and shoved a backpack into Phoenix's hands and began gathering our meagre possessions.

"Fang? You're not leaving me again, are you?" My voice was tiny, and I could feel tears threatening to spill. He _couldn't _leave me again. He had only recued me yesterday, and I'd just had his baby for crying out loud.

"What? No, of course not, Max! Why would I do that? I've only just found you again, and there's no way I'm ever gonna leave you again." He rushed over to me and looked into my eyes, wiping away the tears that were lingering there. "I'm never gonna leave you, Max. You got that? Never." He kissed me softly on the lips, still looking into my eyes.

"Sorry, I'm being silly." I looked down at Skye, blushing slightly. He just hugged us both, out baby between us. Like a Skye sandwich.

"AAWWWWWW!" Ah. I'd forgotten the rest of the Flock were there, and apparently Fang had too, as we both blushed furiously at the sound of Nudge and Angel.

"Well, let's get going." Fang said in a slightly strangled voice. I smirked as I watched him and the Flock pack everything up and divide the bags between them. I didn't have to help, I had the baby. I smirked more.

"Uh, before we get on with this Save-The-World stuff, I think we should go and see my Mom. I mean, I wanna let her meet Skye, and I bet she doesn't know what happened to us . . ." I looked up at Fang again."

"'Kay."

I despair.

**Please review! I love you if you do :D :D **


	18. Mom

**Disclaimer : I own Phoenix and Skye, but thats it **

**OMG, 97 reviews!!!! Keep going! :D**

Chapter 18.

I love flying. I love the feeling of the wind tugging at your hair, your feathers floating on the wind as you soar for miles through the thin air. I love suddenly catching a warm current and relaxing on it, almost as if you were sleeping.

I was thinking about my love of flying as we headed to my Mom's. I was holding Skye in my arms, and kept looking down at her small, sleeping face as I flew. We'd been flying for a few hours now, and were almost there.

I looked down at my baby again. She looked like me and Fang at the same time. She had my mouth and face shape, but Fang's nose and eyes, despite the fact they were still blue at the moment. I gotta say, for a baby, she was pretty gorgeous.

"Guys, can all of you except me, Fang and Phoenix stay here while we go see my Mom? I'm not planning on staying for long, and I don't want us to linger." At the moment we were over a forest about ten miles from my Mom's house. I was flying up at the front, but my head was turned so I could see my Flock. They all nodded without question except for Phoenix.

"Why do you need me?" His face was confused.

"Because you're part of this Flock now, and I want you to meet my Mom." I gave him a glare as I turned away. He might not think he was part of the Flock, but as far as I was concerned, he was. It took a lot for one of us to trust somebody, especially Fang, so I trusted him too without question. He was a mutant, just like us, except there was no-one to help him, to rescue him, so I felt oddly protective. Hormones.

I heard the Flock head downwards as me, Fang and Phoenix flew on. Fang was already on my right side, like always, and now Phoenix flew to be on my left. We continued like this for about five minutes, me and Fang sneaking glances at each other all the time.

I saw the house come into view and immediately banked downwards, landing within a couple of seconds. I heard the two boys land behind me and looked at Skye, who was now awake, staring at me with her blue eyes. I retracted my wings, hugging her close to me as we walked towards the front door.

I knocked on the door before grabbing Fangs hand and hugging Skye. Footsteps could be heard from inside, and the door opened to reveal my Mom standing there, Ella a few feet behind her.

"Max?" Her eyes widened as I saw her take in the baby in my arms. "What? But, how did this happen?" I was so tempted to say 'well, when a boy and a girl love each other very much . . .' but I didn't. I don't think it would have gone down well with my Mom, so I stayed quiet. "It's only been five months! The baby shouldn't be born yet? How did th-"

I cut her off. "What do you mean it's only been five months?"

"That it's been five months since you and Fang had –"

"Let's talk about this inside, Mom." I was sure I was tomato red by then. We all went through to the living room. Ella was staring at Skye with her mouth hanging open and her eyes bugging out of her head. Fang and I sat on the love seat, and Phoenix sat on a chair while Mom and Ella took the sofa.

Mom spoke first. "It should take nine months for a baby to develop properly, yet it's only been five since-" I sent her a glare. "Since you got pregnant. I was just so surprised, the baby looks so healthy. I should have guessed the bird DNA would alter pregnancy."

Ella couldn't seem to hold it in any longer. "MAX! You had a baby?!?!?! Why didn't I know about this? Who's the dad? Is it a boy or a girl? Can I hold it? I so can't believe you had a baby!" She paused to suck in a breath.

"Ella! I didn't say anything because I was confused, Fang is the dad, she's a girl, her name is Skye, and yes you can hold her." I interrupted before she could speak any more. I got up and handed her my baby, watching her eyes widen once more.

"So, you and Fang . . ?" Her gaze flicked from me to Fang and back to me. I blushed in response. She grinned.

Then my Mom noticed Phoenix. "Who are you?" I looked at her, she usually wasn't so blunt.

"I'm Phoenix. Uh, Fang found me on one of his raids on the Schools. I'm with the whole Flock now."

Mom looked at him for a few seconds longer before switching her gaze to Fang. Her eyes tightened.

"We have to go now, Mom." I didn't want to worry her with news about Itex, and we'd left the Flock over half an hour ago.

"Really? But you only just got here!" I just looked at her. "Oh, well. You know I support your decisions. But can I hold my Granddaughter first?" I nodded, and Ella passed my daughter to Mom. I smiled at her expression turned to one of love almost instantly as she held Skye. I allowed this to go on for a few minutes before speaking again.

"We gotta go, Mom." She nodded at me, and I went to take Skye of her.

WE traips3ed out of the house in silence, before taking of. I had an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach, and I flew towards the Flock all the faster.

**Okay, i don't like this chapter, consider it a filler **** i need three more reviews to get to 100!!!!! :D**


	19. Fax and Phoenix

**Discliamer: The only people I own are Phoenix and Skye, yada yada yada . . .**

**Over 100 reviews!!!! Woweeee :D aaaanndddd, I give you . . . FAXNESS!!!!!**

Chapter 19

We landed in the forest silently. Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy and Angel were sat in a small clearing, talking as though nothing was wrong. I, on the other hand, was wound tighter than a, uh, tight thing. We were on the run _again, _and stupid whitecoats wanted my baby. I seriously hate my life sometimes.

As soon as we were seen Nudge jumped up, babbling excitedly about something she saw while flying here that _might_ have been a squirrel but looked a bit like a bird. Iggy just sat there and the youngest two came and hugged me briefly. I went over to Iggy.

"Can you hold Skye please? I wanna talk to Fang for a bit." Iggy stretched out his arms to take her, a smirk on his face. I didn't even _want_ to know what was going through his head right then. I turned away and grabbed Fang, dragging him deeper into the woods. I heard Iggy say "Use protection guys!" quietly, and I flipped him off, not caring that he couldn't see it.

I kept walking until it there was almost no light filtering down through the trees. I went up to a huge oak and leaned against it.

"What do you want to talk about, Max?" Fang asked, moving closer to me. He grabbed my waist gently and drew me to him. My baby bump had decreased rapidly, and I only looked a few months along.

"Who said I wanted to talk?" I lowered my voice and brought my face closer to Fangs, so our lips brushed when I spoke. "Maybe, I just wanted some time alone with you. Because, let's face it, we haven't had any," my tongue touched his lower lip lightly, "alone time, for over five months." I was whispering my now, and Fangs breathing had increased dramatically, his eyes wide.

I leaned even closer, if that were possible. "Don't you agree?" Our breath mingled as I spoke.

Fang made a strangled noise at the back of his throat. "Uuh. I guess."

"Great." Then I kissed him. Just a peck. Then another. Then I slowly dragged my tongue across his lip again, watching his obsidian eyes as they widened even more.

But Fang is an impatient boy, so he ignored my protests as his mouth crashed onto mine. He ran his tongue along my lower lip this time, and I opened my mouth.

_Someone's getting impatient, _I thought and smirked into the kiss. He just kissed me all the harder, gripping my waist and pushing me against the tree. I started to feel dizzy and started swaying. If Fang hadn't been holding me I would have fallen over.

I broke the kiss, gasping for air. Fang cocked one of his dark eyebrows. "What? I need to _breathe _y'know." He just smirked and brought me to him again.

From the way he was holding my waist, he obviously thought _he_ was in charge of this kiss. How wrong he was. I took his bottom lip between my teeth and bit it gently, eliciting a moan from the back of Fang's throat. I smirked again and he chuckled. I bit it again, harder. His response was to lean into me even more, so I was squished between the tree and Fang.

I could feel his thumbs stroking my hips and they began to slowly slide upwards, under my top. I chuckled slightly and placed my hands on his chest. Which wasn't easy, mind you, because there was _no _space between us. At all.

I shoved him away, laughing on the inside at his face. His lower lip was pouting slightly, and I stroked it with my finger, making him tremble.

"Naughty Fang. I gave birth to _your _daughter yesterday, so no more than kissing." I smirked again, enjoying watching him grumble in frustration.

I began to pull him back for another kiss when I heard shouting.

"MAX!" I shot out from under Fang and started speeding towards the clearing. I burst through the trees and skidded to a stop, looking for the danger.

I saw my Flock stood in a small circle, Iggy still holding Skye. They saw me and parted, their eyes wide with fear.

Phoenix was on the ground, convulsing uncontrollably. Foam was forming at his mouth and he was making strange choked sounds. His eyes were wide open, and instead of being their usual warm gold, they had turned pure white, even the pupil.

Fang roared up next to me, saw Phoenix, and immediately went over to restrain him. I winced when I saw one of the flailing arms hit him on the head and went over to aid him, pinning his arms to his sides while Fang sat on his legs.

After about five minutes he calmed, and his eyes returned to normal. He closed his eyes, breathing heavily. Fang and I were panting from trying to restrain him. His eyes opened again to see the pair of us holding him down.

"I'm okay guys, let me up." I gave him a look before getting up of him. I stood up, and Fang got up to join me. I reached my arms out to Iggy and he silently passed me Skye as we all stared at Phoenix. Fang wrapped his arms around me and put his little finger in Skye's fist.

I gave Phoenix a cold glare. "What was that." I didn't know if this was some evil side affect of what the whitecoats had done to him, but I didn't know what it was, and I didn't want anything unusual anywhere near my baby. This was a threat in my eyes.

"I call it a 'vision'. It's my only gift, like how you can fly so fast, and Gazzy can, uh, mimic. When I'm having a Vision, I don't know what's happening to my body. All I can see of feel is what the Vision is showing me. It's always something that will happen in the future, and soon. It's usually something bad, but it also shows me how to escape it. Once it's over, I wake up." He looked down.

I didn't know what to say. I was just staring at him, stunned, as was the rest of the Flock. Then Fang spoke.

"What did you see?" Phoenix looked up at Fang, terror in his eyes.

"I saw the whitecoats coming here. I saw them use some sort of gas that knocked us all out instantly, and they took Skye before killing us. Then they took Skye to the school and did experiments on her." His voice broke slightly at the end. There was silence in the clearing. Then I took a step forward.

"How can we avoid this?" I kept my voice quiet and calm, trying not to show how I was screaming inside. Phoenix looked at me but said nothing. "_How can we save my baby?!" _I practically screeched. Skye started to cry and I hugged her closer. I was shaking by now, and the Flock was staring at me. I wouldn't let anything happen to me baby, _ever._ If only Phoenix could tell me what to do to save her.

"We have to go now. We can't linger at all, or they'll find us. I don't know how they know where we are, but we have to move quickly, we'll never know when they're coming." And then everyone started preparing for our flight. Well, I assume they were.

Because me and Skye were already in the air.


	20. Fang's Blog

**Disclaimer : I own Phoenix and Skye only.**

**105 reviews guys!! This is awesome! :D**

Chapter 20

**Welcome to Fang's Blog!!!**

**Visitor Number : The stupid thing still isn't working. But your way up there, believe me.**

**Date : Who cares?**

So guys, I know I haven't updated for a while, so here you are, the past few weeks :

You know all about Phoenix, yeah? And that we were helping Max with the whole saving the world mission? Well, we can safely say that's dead and gone.

So, of we went to this real small School near Arizona, and who do we find there? Max. The same Max who I _left _five months ago to help her save the world. Yeah.

And I said to her to meet up again in 20 years from now, 'cos if I saw here before, nothing could make me leave her again. So, obviously, I just _have _to find her.

We bust in there, and she's on this table, all strapped down and fragile looking. I mean, just seeing her there breaks my heart. And then, who do I see jabbing needles into her? Jeb. That stupid, _evil, _

Uh, I won't put the end to that sentence on here. Needless to say, I see Jeb the traitor, I see red, and now Jeb won't be waking up for a _very long time._

Cue yesterday.

You know ages ago I put that blog where I got a comment on whether Max, Nudge and Angel would have eggs or babies when they were older, and I was all 'I don't wanna find out anytime soon'? Yeah, well, I know now.

You wanna know why?

Because when I found Max, she was pregnant. Heavily pregnant. With my child.

Knowing that _I_ did that to her just makes me want to crawl in a hole and die. I mean, I got her pregnant, then _left_ her for the next _twenty years._

I mean, I didn't know I got her pregnant, but still.

Yeah yeah, I know what you're thinking. _You're only fifteen! _Yada yada yada. Whatever. We knew what we were doing. I think.

So it was just before I left I got her in said predicament. Which I didn't mean to do, but then as soon as I left I was thinking about how much of a jerk I was for doing that, and then I find out I got her pregnant.

So, not a happy Fang.

We take her back to our cave, and I send Phoenix to get food and stuff. I'm sat there thinking about how I hurt Max and how I'm a terrible person (you know, I'm beginning to see why some people think I'm emo, which I'm NOT) and she wakes up. I start apologising and such, and she stands up. Then she slaps me. Hard. Twice. I mean I know I deserved it, but still. Then she jumps on me and starts kissing me. Sometimes, I find algebra easier to understand than Max. And I've never been to school. Except for a few months, but we don't need to go over that.

Cue more apologies, crying (not me!) yada yada yada.

So then were sat there, sharing the stories of what's happened while we've been apart, and Phoenix turns up. And then the Flock.

Cue 'How did you escape?'s and 'How did you find us'?

The Iggy blows his top and starts going on about how I 'broke' max and now decide to 'swan back into their lives'.

I'm seriously on the brink of getting up and punching him when max starts crying and flies out of the cave. So we all fly out to get her, and she has a little scream and cry.

And then, when everything seems calm again, her waters break. I mean, _come on!_

So I sit there thinking '_OMGOMGOMGOMG'_. Which, I know, isn't very Fanglike, but I don't care.

Cue birth. Cue max screaming 'I AM GOING TO KILL YOU FANG!' among other things.

Cue baby girl being born. I wrapped her in my hoodie and gave her to Max, and everyone came round to 'Ooh' and 'Aah' over her.

Then, the next day, Max decides to go see her Mom again. Which is when Phoenix decides to show us his gift. Of predicting the future. Of seeing the whitecoats taking out baby, who is named Skye.

Cue screaming Max. Cue screaming Skye.

And here we are. Hidden in a cave God-Knows-Where. Everyone is asleep apart from me, and I'm holding Skye. She's awesome. I reckon she looks like me. But there's this really cold breeze that's making her whimper.

Hmmnn. Breeze. I like that name. Much better than Skye. I suggest this to my baby, and she smiles.

Breeze.

Max is going to _kill_ me.

Fly On – Fang.

**Review review!!!**


	21. Age

**Disclaimer : I only own Phoenix and baby.**

**Okay, some people are all i love breeze! And some are all breeze sucks! But, i ma keeping it as that. Sorry if it offends you, but its only a name.**

**I know i haven't updated in ages, and im a very bad person. Please forgive me!!**

**I have so many reviews! I love you! Ill give you cookies! :D**

Chapter 21

I was going to _kill_ Fang.

I had woken up early to feed my baby, and while I was, I had noticed Fang's laptop lying next to him, still on. Being the curious soul that I am, I opened it to find his latest blog. In which he had _changed my baby's name._ To Breeze.

So here I was. I put the laptop down and held onto my baby tighter as I sent Fang my glare while he slept. I glared harder as he stirred, subconsciously feeling my gaze. He pried his eyes open and blinked a few times before focusing on me and the baby in my arms.

He started to smile, but stopped when he saw my expression.

"Wha-?" I pointed to the laptop and he stopped. "Ah."

"Yes, Fang." I was practically hissing. "Ah. You only went and changed my baby's name on _a stupid blog!!!!!. _You should have _talked to me!_" I glared at him again.

"I was just sat there , and it came to me, and she really seemed to like it, and it suits her." He stared me down. "She's my daughter too."

I resolve wavered slightly. I actually liked the name Breeze much better than Skye, but I wasn't going to tell him that. He must have seen it in my eyes because he started to smirk. Then I had a brainwave, and my smirk soon beat his.

He looked slightly wary as I began to speak. "Okay, she can be named Breeze. But you owe me. _Big time."_I know, you're probably thinking, _what's so bad about that?_ But you weren't there the last time he owed me, when we were twelve. I saw him pale slightly as he remembered.

The rest of the Flock had woken up by now, and were watching us. "Breeze? Sound's like the kinda name you'd give a dog." Iggy said, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. I punched him hard on the arm as I got up to take a sandwich out of my backpack.

"Hello? Maximum? Fang? Iggy? Nudge? Phoenix? Angel? _The gasman? _Do they seem like your average name to you?"

"Well, you named yourself." I punched him again, before straitening up.

"Right guys," I began, munching on my breakfast. Tuna, yum. "We need to get going. I have to defeat Itex before they get a chance to take Sk- Breeze away from us."

"Cool." Iggy stood up and walked over to the food bag before taking out an apple.

Angel walked up to me and signalled for me to bend down so she could see Breeze better. I did so as she said "How are we going to find Itex, Max?" She looked up at me, her blue eyes wide and trusting.

_Yeah, Voice. How are we going to find Itex?_ Guess what. No answer. Shocker.

Grumbling, I hurried to think of a plan. "We'll go to the nearest town and find a, uh, library. That should have computers, and we'll search for any recent documents on Itex and such." Everyone started gathering our supplies, and we leaped into the air one by one, me at the front and holding Breeze.

We flew North-North-West for about a half hour until we found a large town. We landed in a small bunch of tree's and pulled our wings in before heading to the centre.

"Right." We were stood in some kind of market place, with masses of people flocking (flocking . . . geddit?) around us. "We need to find a library. Can anyone see one? Or any maps or something . . ." I trailed of, looking around curiously. No-one replied, so I set of down a promising looking street with my head held high.

Breeze looked up at me, her small face wearing a tiny smile. I Looked into her eyes and noticed they were changing slightly. Instead of the deep blue they had been, they were now even darker, and had a hint of brown in them. I reached down next to me and grabbed Fang's hand as we walked along the street.

Before Fang had left, I would never have held his hand or anything where people could see us. But, since I had found him again, and had his _baby, _I had relaxed a little bit.

I heard Gazzy whispering to Iggy, probably telling him we were holding hands, due to the retching noises he immediately made. Angel was walking behind me, looking at all the shops we passed with wide eyes, a smile on her face. Nudge was basking in the sun, her curly hair shining in the sunlight (curly hair shining in the sunlight? I'm so bonkers) as she looked into the windows of cloths shops longingly. I looked down at my own clothes. They were actually kind of gross really, and my top was majorly stretched and baggy. I made a mental note to buy us some more clothes while we were here.

Phoenix was walking with Gazzy and Iggy, joining in with their conversation. I was glad he wasn't on his own again. He was about a half foot shorter than Iggy, a tiny bit shorter than me. I suddenly wondered how old he was.

"Phoenix, do you know how old you are? I mean, we don't know our actual birthdays or anything, but we think we know how old we are in general. I had slowed to a stop, and now we were all stood in a huddle, looking at Phoenix expectantly.

"Uh, I remember this one time, the whitecoats were talking about me. They were saying something about when I was born, I think it was the 30th of April or something. So that means I'm thirteen, fourteen soon. How old are you?" He blushed as soon as he asked this, as if he hadn't meant to in the first place.

Nudge answered first, obviously. "I'm twelve now, more or less. I mean, we had a sort of birthday before Fang left, but it wasn't like our real birthdays. So now Angel is seven, Gazzy is nine, and Iggy, Fang and Max are fifteen. Oh, and Dylan too."

"Who's Dylan?" Phoenix asked, looking curious. I answered quickly before anyone else could.

"It doesn't matter." He looked confused, but he didn't ask anything more. I didn't want to bring up the subject of Dylan. I had sent him away with Jeb, but since he had turned traitor, I had no idea of where he was. I guess I sort of hoped he'd escaped somehow.

"Look, Max, there's a library." I turned to see Angel pointing at a huge building a few hundred feet away.

***

Okay. So, basically, Itex had sort of shut down since me, Nudge and Angel had blown up the German one, but after exhausting the poor computer we had paid $4 to use for an hour, we had found where the final branch of Itex was.

Arizona.

Yep, you heard me. The one place I needed to find had practically been under my nose for _months._ I was fuming. I was surprised there wasn't steam pouring out of my ears.

But nooo, that wasn't it.

Nudge had used her hacking skills to access some secret files on the Itex database, and it had pages of information on its most successful experiment and the follow-ups. Yep, me and the Flock.

And in a teensy little footnote at the bottom, in red writing, was _'Find and destroy first batch. Take new mutant for genetic testing. Dead or alive.'_

And you wanna know what it said under that, even?

_Written by Jeb Batchelder._

That _ass._


	22. See

**Disclaimer : I own nooothing **

**Come on guys, i know 'm not updating as fast as usual, but i have family up, yada yada yada.**

**Please keep reviewing!!!! I love reviews, they make me happy! :D and can i ask opinions about the nickname 'Bree', pleeaasseeee **

Chapter 22.

We were all sat in a circle at out latest hide-away, a cave in some cliff face. As soon as I had printed of all of the Itex information, we'd found a wal-mart on the outskirts of the town and had gone in and gotten some new clothes.

Fang was, well, wearing yet another black t-shirt, another pair of black jeans and another pair of black converse. I was wearing a plain white t-shirt and some skinny jeans with converse, as were most of the Flock. Well, except Nudge, who was wearing a ridiculously tight pink shirt and tiny shorts with flip-flops. She's picked them up and I'd started ranting at her about how they were impractical when she teamed up with Angel and forced me to buy them.

I glared at them now as I took out the sheets of paper. I gave Breeze to Iggy, smiling as I took in her tiny yellow romper suit with little bee's on it. If you'd said to me a year ago, this time next year you'll be in a relationship with Fang, on the run from Itex again and will have had Fang's baby, I would have been on the floor, crying with laughter. I could never have imagined life with a relationship, and a baby, but now. Well, I couldn't think of it another way.

I split the stack of paper up and gave them out to the pairs; Me and Fang (obviously), Gazzy and Phoenix, and Nudge and Angel. Iggy was holding Breeze while we read the papers, looking uncomfortable because he couldn't help as we could.

We all read in silence for about ten minutes when Nudge spoke up. What a pleasant surprise.

"What's this mean guys? 'On the date **/**/**, Experiments 1908 Maximum Ride and Experiment 1099 Fang both had _mfffth_-" I had slapped my hand over her mouth, my face a lovely, fluorescent red as I realised what the sheet was about to describe. I reached over into her lap and snatched the sheet from her.

My face must have been a beacon by the time I had finished reading. It had _everything._ Even one picture. I was so glad Nudge hadn't turned the page, I was pretty sure she didn't know about the, uh, _birds and the bees_ yet. I didn't have a clue about whether Phoenix did. Us older three did. God, that day so ranked in my top ten embarrassing days.

We'd been twelve, and Jeb had sat us down in the kitchen while the others were playing outside. He'd proceeded to explain about what would happen when we got older, when we were all in the room. I mean, he couldn't have done the guys and _then_ me could he? Nooooo.

They were snickering so bad when he got onto the topic of my _monthly gift_. They got it so bad later. Then he explained about how babies were made, yada yada yada, and we all turned a wonderful brick colour.

I quickly shoved the paper in my pocket and signalled for everyone to carry on. Fang looked at me questionably and I mouthed 'later' to him.

Suddenly, the Gasman jumped up. I looked at him, and he signalled to Iggy.

"Iggy, get up man, I got something to tell you." Iggy got up immediately, still holding my baby.

Gazzy looked at me pleadingly. "Please, Max, we won't be long, I just want to talk about something." I glared at him slightly, then nodded. Iggy was his best friend and brother, so they would want to talk about things that we didn't need, or _want_, if Iggy had anything to do with it, to know.

"Don't go too far though." They both nodded, and Iggy passed Breeze down to me before they took a running leap out into the sky.

I'd barely turned back around when Nudge spoke up.

"Maaax, please can me and Angle teach Phoenix how to fly like the hawks? I mean, no offence, but your flying's kinda bad, and ages ago, when we were searching for Angel and waiting for Max, me and Fang stayed with these hawks, and they did these awesome flying moves, and they really helped our flying, and it really looks awesome, and-"

"Okay, okay!" I interrupted before Nude died from lack of oxygen. She was giving me a headache. "Go." I waved them away with my hand. I looked hard at Angel.

_Stay close to the cave. I want to be able to hear you._ I couldn't risk for them to wander too far, we were always in danger. She nodded and they went, too.

And then it was just me, Fang and Breeze. I put Breeze down on her blanket next to me, watching her while she slept. I was turning to Fang to mention how cute she looked when he moved the papers from my lap and brought his face to mine.

"I think," He was staring deep into my eyes," that we should take a break."

That was all it took.

I grabbed his hair, weaving it through my fingers as I pulled his face the short distance to mine. I kissed him with a passion, ignoring the rocks that were digging into my ass.

I shifted to the side slightly, they really did hurt, and Fang suddenly flipped me so I was on my back.

He hovered over me; his legs either side as I reached up to kiss him again. He pulled away and I pouted. He chuckled and kissed the side of my mouth, where my lips met.

I growled slightly and kissed him, holding onto his head so he couldn't move away. I could feel him smirking. I deepened the kiss, stretching so my chest was pressed against his.

He moved one hand, so he was balancing on just the one. His free hand moved slowly lower until it reached the bottom of my white t-shirt. His thumb stroked the exposed skin on my hip, before sliding under to my stomach.

I kissed him harder and let my hands wander too. I pulled away for a second to glance down at our positions, and Fang's body supported smoothly over mine. I looked closer.

Oooh.

I smirked up at Fang, and he blushed ever so slightly. I pulled him back for another kiss, and my shirt was riding higher and higher.

And then the rest of the Flock landed in the cave.

Ah.

I saw Angel, Gazzy, Nudge and Phoenix look at our position with confused looks, and I wondered whether Phoenix did know anything about, uh, where babies came from. Iggy could see Fang's hand up my shirt and my hand on his belt buckle with an amused smirk on his face.

Wait.

_Iggy could see? _


	23. The Talk

**Disclaimer : I own Phoenix and Breeze, but no-one else. Not even fang **

**I wanna like, uh dedicate (?) this chapter to Absidoodle. Even though she doesn't have anything on her profile or any fanfics, she's awesome **** and she loves my story *happy dance* :D**

Chapter 23.

Fang jumped of me and sat down on the other side of Breeze, the pile of papers placed carefully on his lap. Iggy just smirked even bigger. I was staring at him in shock. He could see.

I could tell because his piercing blue eyes were even clearer than before, and were tracking Fang's movements carefully, now focusing on the papers.

I looked at them also, only to gasp in shock. Fang had only gone and put the page with the _picture_ on the top of the pile. Speaking of which, how did they get a picture? That must mean someone had been outside the house, when, y'know. I went fire-truck red at the thought. It would have been Jeb. He would have planned this from the beginning.

I was distracted from my musings by Iggy suddenly leaping forward to grab the sheet. I stood up, trying to take it of him as he danced away from me.

"Iggy, give me that back. _Now._" I sent him a glare as he just smiled even wider and looked down.

His eyes widened as he obviously saw the image in the middle of the page. He looked up at me again, mischief gleaming in his eyes.

"Oooh. We _have _been naughty."He smirked again.

That's when I pounced.

His eyes widened in surprise as I tackled him, sending him into the wall as I tore the paper from his hands.

I looked at him against the wall with a shocked expression, my eyes wide and innocent. I shoved the paper into my pocket and shot Fang a glare, watching how he averted my gaze. I heard shuffling behind me as I turned to see the others standing and looking at me and Iggy with wide eyes. I smiled at them.

"Don't worry guy's, it was just Iggy being an _idiot._" I smiled again, before walking over to pick up my baby. I held her close to my chest as I put my head in her hair, smelling her baby smell. "Oh yeah, and care to explain _how you can see?_"

Gazzy spoke up. "I was reading in one of the papers about Iggy's blindness, yada yada yada, and then it says it can be reversed by using a magnet to get rid of this chip that's blocking his sight. I wanted to explain this to Iggy, but then Nudge came by and she can use her magnetism, so I called her over, and BAM, Iggy can see." He smiled really big at the end, looking at Iggy. I was smiling too. I had hated having to give Iggy extra directions and make him feel different.

"Max?" It was Nudge. I looked over at her and the others, now sat opposite me and Fang on the cave floor, a few feet from Iggy who was now sat also.

"Yeah sweetie?" I looked up at her.

"Where do babies come from?" She looked so innocent when she said this, her head cocked to one side slightly. I could feel my eyes bugging out of my head.

Crap.

I could hear Iggy laughing.

"Uh." I stammered. How was I going to do this? I mean, Jeb hadn't really given us a proper explanation, just a brief overview. I guess you could say me and Fang, uh, found out by ourselves. I decided to start with the simple stuff.

"Fang, Iggy, take Gazzy to the other end of the cave and talk to him there. And Phoenix" I didn't want to explain it to all of them at the same time and put them through the embarrassment I did. They smirked slightly, knowing why I did this, and moved away, Gazzy and Phoenix in tow.

I moved to sit in front of the girls, still holding Breeze.

"Right." I began to explain all about _growing up, _ and all of the changes and stuff. They just sat there and listened while I explained what would happen and why. Then I moved onto 'how babies are made'. Oh God.

I only gave them the _very_ basic details, but it didn't stop them asking questions.

"So, you and Fang . .?" Nudge questioned, looking at me with wide eyes. I nodded, looking away. I saw Fang and Iggy talking to the boys. Gazzy had a slightly repulsed look on his face.

"What was it like?" I looked back at her.

"You'll find out when you're older." I didn't want to get into details. Even though she was twelve, Angel was only seven and would probably be told anyway.

"Okay?"

"Yes." They both said at the same time. "Can I hold Breeze?" Angel asked, staring at her longingly. I passed her over as the guys walked over to us. Fang sat down next to me and took my hand.

"How'd it go?" I whispered to him, leaning into my shoulder. The others were all talking, hopefully not about the recent conversations, so we wouldn't be overheard. "Did Phoenix know anything?"

"No. We just gave them the basics. Grossed them Gazzy out though. He's still at the girls have cooties stage." He chuckled slightly. I smiled and leaned up to kiss him.

"Get a room!" I heard Gazzy shout. I smiled, continuing to kiss Fang. I broke it of soon though, laughing quietly at his expression.

I heard Breeze start to cry, and I leaned over to Angel to take her. She calmed in my arms, and Fang put his arms around us both. I kissed Breeze on her forehead, and then blushed slightly. I never used to do and PDA, this was all new to me.

I looked up to see Angel and Nudge looking at the three of us with big grins on their faces, Gazzy looking disgusted, Phoenix looking impassive, and, actually, Iggy looking at us as if he was going to say 'Awww'.

I was about to start teasing him for that when all hell broke loose.

About fifty erasers (flying ones) flew into our cave and began to attack us. I know what you're thinking, _they can't be erasers, they're all retired? What is this?_

I was thinking the same.

And the answer?

I didn't have a freakin' clue.

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	24. Fight

IM SO SORRY I UPLOADED THE CHAPTER AFTER THIS BEFORE I UPLOADED THIS ONE!!! PLEASE FORGIVE ME!!!

D**isclaimer : I own Phoenix and Breeze (who i am seriously considering giving the nickname Bree) and no-one else **** waa**

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**On with the chapter!**

Chapter 24.

My mind suddenly went blank, filled with nothing except _Fly! Escape!_

"Max! Get to the back! Keep Bree-" Fang was cut off as an Eraser caught his jaw with a punch. His head shot to the side as blood spurted out of his mouth. He turned and started fighting the Eraser with everything he had, occasionally looking back at me. I looked at the other Flock members. Iggy was paired with Phoenix and they were fighting five Erasers at once. Phoenix didn't look too experienced, and Iggy seemed uncomfortable, probably because he hadn't had a fight that he could see before, so I was glad they were helping each other. Angel, Nudge and Gazzy were individually fighting and Eraser each, and more were streaming into the cave.

I felt so helpless stood at the back, but I knew I had to protect my baby at all costs. It was obvious that she was what the Erasers wanted, and they were trying to get past the Flock and get to us. I pressed myself into the wall as much as I could, pressing Breeze close to my chest. She started to cry, and I placed her face at my shoulder, trying to quieten her.

At her cry the Erasers had jumped slightly, and were now fighting even harder. I was itching to join in, or spread my wings and get out of there as fast as I could, but neither option was possible. The cave entrance was completely blocked by Erasers. I didn't look like any more were coming in, but there were still enough for ten each.

Fang was now locked in a vicious fight with five of the Erasers at once. I wanted to help him so badly it hurt, but then Breeze whimpered and I looked down at her, tiny tears on her cheeks. She obviously didn't like the loud noises the fight was producing. I held her closer and looked at Fang again.

He gave a roundhouse kick to the Eraser directly in front of him while punching another in the jaw. He got a hit on the collar bone from one on his left and we both winced at the loud crack before he slammed his hands over that one's ears, popping his eardrums. He screamed and jumped out of the cave, following about ten others.

All of my Flock was fighting with everything they had, their faces hard with determination. I saw Erasers jump out of the cave one by one, defeated. Well, about half of them walked out, with their wings _in._ Angel.

Suddenly, I heard a thump, and my gaze whipped around to see Fang on the floor, and Eraser stood over him holding some nasty-looking-sharp-thing. He was about to bring it down on Fang's back when Iggy jumped in front of him and knocked the nasty-looking-sharp-thing (that's too long, let's call it a NLST ;) out of his hands, before punching the Eraser in the gut, then the jaw. Wincing, he dropped the NLST and turned tail before jumping out of the cave. There was silence.

All of the Erasers had either plummeted to their death (Angel, Grrr) or had flown away, their tails between their legs. The Flock were all panting heavily, exhausted from fighting. Except Fang.

I ran over to him and sat down beside him, Bree balanced in one arm. I'd decided Breeze was too long to say. And anyway, Fang had thought of Breeze, so I had nicknamed her Bree. Take that Fang.

I checked his neck and turned him over. His eyes fluttered open and he sat up.

"Fang! Are you okay?" I was talking hurriedly, tripping over my words. I began assessing him with my eyes, trying to see if there was any damage. He looked around with a slightly confused expression, before it cleared. "Are you hurt? Don't lie to me!"

He looked at me calmly. "I'm fine. He snuck up behind me and whacked my head, calm down, Max." He got up on his knees and looked right at me. My breathing was fast and erratic by now, and my eyes were wide. Jeez, I'm such a freak show.

"Calm, Max." I slowed my breathing. Taking control, I turned to face the Flock.

"We need to get out of here."

***

Ten minutes later we were all on the way to Arizona. I'd decided to go there straight away, and find someplace to camp out for the night. We needed to find Itex as soon as possible. We weren't going to visit my mom though; I wanted to focus on my task only. A though suddenly struck me.

"Phoenix, why didn't you see this is one of your Visions?" I flew slightly closer to him, pulling Fang with me. I was carrying Bree in my left arm, the right stretched up to hold Fang's hand, who was flying above me.

He looked down. "I did. I just didn't know it would happen like that. I saw the attack, but I thought it was in the forest. I thought we could avoid it, I'm sorry." He really did look sorry, his head hanging low.

But that was no excuse, in my opinion.

I was just opening my mouth when I felt Fang tug on my hand. I looked up at him.

"Leave it." He mouthed. He started to fly ahead again, signalling we should go on. I tried to quell my bad thoughts and followed him. I looked down at Bree. Bree was such a cute name, better than Breeze anyday. I wondered lightly what Fang's face would look like when I told him she had another name. Hee hee.

**Okay, I know this is short, but I kinda think it's a filler. I've already written the next chapter, so it should be up soon! Please review! **** oh, and the next chapter will have FAX!!! :D**


	25. Hurt

**Disclaimer : i own Phoenix and Bree, no-one else, yada yada yada. **

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Chapter 25.

We eventually found a small clearing in a forest and set up camp there, and now we were all sat round the fire, trying not to fall asleep. We'd just had about a gazillion burgers from some fast food place and we were all full and sleepy.

"Okay guys, get some sleep. I want you all to be wide awake tomorrow; we've got loads to do." I spoke in a hushed tone, not wanting to break the peacefulness.

I watched as Angel and Nudge curled up next to each other, and Iggy, Gazzy and Phoenix went to sleep in a small circle under a tree.

Which left just me and Fang.

And Bree.

Well, she was in my arms, but asleep.

I shuffled closer to Fang and put my head on his shoulder, gazing at my sleeping Flock.

"I wish . . ." I trailed off, looking up at Fang's confused face. I didn't know how to voice my feelings.

"What, Max?" He looked into my eyes. I looked down at Bree, sleeping peacefully in my arms.

"I wish we could be like this all the time, y'know, together, and happy. I mean, even though we've gotta destroy Itex, we're just . . . I dunno. I wish it could just be like this more." I shrugged slightly, a faint flush creeping over my face.

"I get it. I do too." I smiled up at him, and he pecked my lightly on the lips. He then looked down at Bree. "I've never really noticed before, but she really does look like you."

"Really?" I looked down at her. Now Fang had mentioned it, I really could see my features in her face, except really small. Obviously. She stirred and opened her eyes. They'd been changing since the day she was born, and were now a deep, dark blue, almost black. "I think she's getting your eyes though. But didn't you say it took weeks for them to change?" I looked up at him again.

"Yeah, for human babies. I dunno what it'll be like for Breeze."

"Bree." I corrected him. "I've nicknamed her Bree." I gave him a huge grin. He tried to glare at me, but couldn't help but smile back too. I gently put Bree down next to me on the little makeshift bed we'd made earlier, and turned to face him again.

I moved so was sat in his lap and grinned deviously before kissing him. A lot. I could feel myself getting dizzy and pulled back to breathe for a second, and was about to go back to him again when he stopped me. I gave him a confused look and sat back for him to explain.

"Max, there's something I've not been able to stop thinking about, and . . ." He started to trail of.

"Oh, no, do not go 'oh Max, it doesn't matter'. Explain. Now." I gave him my best mock serious face, but I gave up after a second and began to laugh quietly. When he didn't join in, I asked him again.

He looked down. "It's just, well, after we, y'know," his voice cracked slightly and I pulled his face up to meet mine, smiling slightly and signalling for him to go on. He began to speak in a rush. "After we made love and I left, I always wondered if I had hurt you in anyway, because I saw you wincing, but I know you hide your pain, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it, and-"

I put a finger over his lips. Fang never spoke much, not even to me. I knew that when he spoke in full sentences, and in a rush, something was really eating him up. I'd never seen him like this with anyone but me, and even then only once or twice.

Then I realised what he had actually asked.

Ah.

I looked down, a blush creeping over my cheeks. I didn't like to speak about my feelings, everyone knew that. I hated to think of that first month when Fang had left. He gently grabbed my chin and pulled it up.

"Max? Please tell me." He was looking really worried now, obviously thinking it was something terrible. I hated doing this to him, I was being such a drama queen.

_Spit it out Max, it's nothing Fang can't know about. Don't be such a sissy._

"Yeah, sure. I mean, at the time, it was bad at first, but then it got better. A lot better, obviously." I blushed even deeper at this. He knew what I was on about. And yes, I do mean what you think I mean. Now get your heads out of the gutter. "But, the next day when I woke up, I just, ached. For about a week. It's okay now. Fine." I looked down again.

I could hear Fangs throat working as he thought of what to say. I got in before he could.

"Fang, don't worry, that's what's supposed to happen for a girls first time, so don't go beating yourself up about it." I looked into his eyes, trying to see what he was thinking. I couldn't see past the emotionless mask though. So, obviously, I kissed him. Hard.

I licked his lower lip gently and felt him open his mouth, allowing the kiss to deepen. I could tell that he was still thinking about what I had said, so I growled and forced him to reciprocate the kiss my biting his lower lip gently. I put my arms around his neck and pressed myself closer to him, so I was straddling him. This seemed to get his attention, and I felt him finally respond to the kiss.

I smiled, and moved my hands down to slip under his black t-shirt. I heard him growl slightly and I smirked, moving my hands higher, teasing him by drawing patterns on his skin.

He then moved his hands to reach under my shirt to stroke my back. I moaned ever so slightly.

"Can you guys stop that now! I can't sleep" Great.

Way to kill a mood Iggy.

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	26. Conference

**Disclaimer : I only own Phoenix and Bree. Sigh. **

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**Okay guys, i have a goal. My goal is to have 200 reviews by my birthday, the 23****rd**** of May. That would be an awesome birthday present **** and whoever is the 200****th**** reviews will have a chapter dedicated to them!!!**

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Chapter 26.

Dylan sunk lower into his chair, sipping on the cold coke he held in his hand. His chin was about level with the top of the table, and he could only see the very top of the white board over all the heads in front of him.

He was sat at the back of the huge conference room, about a hundred fat, balding men sat in front of him, slathering at the prospect of examining one of the bird freaks. Dylan wasn't a bird freak. His wings had just been an amazing, multi-million dollar virtual reality system. So complex it even allowed him to fly. He'd pretended to me Max's 'perfect other half' to make her life that little bit more stressful, that little bit harder to handle.

He smiled slightly as he sipped, wondering what the expression on Max's face would be when she realised what would be done.

As soon as they had left, he and Jeb had immediately left for the main Itex headquarters in Amsterdam. On the way, his wings system had been removed on the plane as Jeb filled him in on the plan.

He wondered what the baby would look like. A boy? A girl? They knew Fang had found her, as they had intended. How did he react?

They had allowed Fang back in Max's life just make her crumble more when they put their plan into action. He couldn't wait.

His finger traced the rim of the can he held, wondering what the reunion had been like. Had Max cried? Had Fang? Unlikely. Had there been anger? Violence? Or just sheer joy?

He didn't know.

Then the heavy wooden doors at the opposite end of the room creaked open, and several people filed into the room as all chatter ceased.

Mr Chu, Dr Gunther-Hagen, Jeb, Anne Walker, all in a perfect line. Dylan sat up straighter in his seat to get a better view of the whiteboard and they all walked in front of it. Then Dr Gunther-Hagen stepped forward, to the microphone.

"Hello everybody! I hope your all well?" He smiled, watching as everyone nodded their heads, murmuring quietly.

"Now, I assure you know why your here?" More nods. "Yes, we are in the process of capturing one of our most successful experiments. This capture will then cause another experiment, Maximum Ride, " He paused to watch his audience as their eyes widened. "to walk straight into out arms. She will also be carrying her child, and hybrid we want _very_ badly. The child's father is the experiment we are to capture.

"We have attempted to capture all of them by force before, such as our Director, otherwise known as Anne Walker" She smiled and stepped forward. "who had a meticulously crafted plan that involved earning their trust. Mr Chu, here, captured maximum Rides biological mother and lured her deep in the ocean. But they escaped both times.

"Our other successful experiments, Erasers, have tried on numerous occasions to capture them by force, but they escaped then also. They can fight like nothing I've ever seen before, and have even employed other mutants to help them. But this time, we will not fail.

"Because the experiment we are going to capture, Experiment 1099, is the father of her child and her mate. Her tie to him is much stronger than that of her and her mother, and if we leave enough subtle clues, she will follow the trail to here, where capture will be easy.

"Also, we will be able to capture the rest of her 'Flock' as she calls it, consisting of two males and a female, as well as Experiment 4556 who has recently joined the 'Flock' and Subject Eleven." Gasps went round to room at that. Angel had been programmed to hit the genetic jackpot. Luckily, he had been able to control her with one of his own, making her side with Gunther-Hagen at the house.

"However, Maximum Ride is the one we want. While we wait, her mate with be perfectly suitable for your wishes. Now, my two daughters will explain my plan in much more detail for you. Anne Walker, their mother, has just gone to get them."

Silence descended in the conference room as everyone stared at the doors, waiting for the three to return. Then Anne Walker came through the door first, blonde wig gone, red hair flaming. Following her were the daughters, both with hair like their mothers. They walked up to the microphone to introduce themselves.

The older one spoke for them. "We have been a big part in this mission. We have both studied Experiment 1099 carefully. How, we will not tell you." She gave a secretive smile." But first, before we explain our fathers plan further, we shall introduce our selves."

This time the younger stood forward, a smooth smirk on her face.

"Lissa and Brigid."

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	27. Catch A Break

*MINOR EDITING COMPLETED*

**Disclaimer : I own Phoenix and Bree, yada yada yada . . . **

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**Oh, and to ErIkA, (i think thats your name :S ) no, i am not American. I wish i was though ****some of my family is American, but not mee ****some of my friends say i'm turning American, cos i say store instead of shop, ect, but i am English. Waaa. **

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**Read on!!!**

Chapter 27.

I woke up, my eyes still closed, when my pillow moved. I punched it into place and settled again. But it was so _hard._ I punched it again, hearing it grunt in response.

Wait, grunt?

I opened my eyes to see Fang's throat about an inch from my nose. Ah. I'd been punching him. Haha. Then I heard giggling. I turned my head to see Nudge and Angel sat by the fire watching us, huge smiles on their faces. I scowled and got up of Fang, ignoring his 'oof' as I pushed off his chest.

I groggily made my way over to the fire and took a charred burger of Iggy. I sat chewing it, watching as the rest of my Flock did the same.

Today we were going to start on out search of the final Itex branch, the one that would lead us to the head honcho, the big cheese. Itex headquarters. Wherever they are. I mean, it could be in _Japan._ Japan is a long, long way away. I think I'd die if we had to go to Japan. Not that I have anything against Japan, but it's a looooong way to get there.

So.

I went over to pick up Bree from where she was still sleeping on the blanket and sat on a stump facing away from the others to feed her. I'd been doing some thinking about me and Fang too. I smiled as I watched Bree's tiny fist clench and unclench against my skin. I knew that our relationship was _different _than before, obviously, because we had a baby. But I didn't want to do anything like we, uh, _did before_, again for a long while. I mean, it wasn't because it had hurt, and I knew it wouldn't again, but it was kinda spur of the moment. I'll never regret it, but now I think about it, well, we are only fifteen.

And _don't _go on about 'you've already got a kid' blah blah blah. Whatever. I know how I feel.

So, how to tell Fang this. Hmmnnn.

I got up and went back over to the fire holding Bree in my arms. I ignored Iggy as he raised his eyebrows once and smirked.

"Guy's, we gotta go find this Itex branch. I'm thinking we go find the nearest town and see it they got someplace we can search it. We can use the laptop too, but I figure if we get all of us on it at once, we'll have a better chance of finding it. 'kay?" I looked at each of them in turn, taking in their nod's and murmurs of 'okay'.

"Good." I stood up and picked up my small bag, filled up mostly with supplied for Bree. I needed to pick up some more diapers for her, too. She went through them fast!

We gathered out supplies and leaped into the air. I watched as the tree's blurred beneath us as we flew. I flapped my wings slightly harder and went to the front of the formation, scanning for a town or city.

"_One two three, not only you and me, at one-eighty degree's and I'm caught in between_." I heard Iggy mutter under his breath behind me. I turned to face him, the universal 'WTF?' expression on my face. He noticed and looked at me innocently.

"What? It's Britney Spears's new song. It's catchy." He widened his eyes, as if he didn't know what the lyrics were about.

Sexist pig.

I grumbled at him. "Sing it in your head." I turned back round, shooting Fang a glare as he chuckled silently.

"Phoenix, have you seen anything else lately?" I didn't know what Jeb and Itex had in store for us, I just hoped we could use Phoenix as our early warning system.

"No, nothing. I haven't had a Vision since that day in the woods." He looked away, avoiding my eyes. Hmm. I'd get Fang to question him later. He seemed shifty.

* * *

Phoenix looked away, into the distance as he flew. He didn't want to lie to Max, but he had no choice.

Ever since the Whitecoats had heard from Jeb that Fang had left Max to help her in her mission to save the world, his only task was to befriend him and help the whitecoats in their master plan to capture Max. He didn't want to, but if he failed, they would track him using his chip and experiment on him again.

He loved being part of the Flock, loved the feeling of being included, but Phoenix put his life first. He refused to be captured again. He wanted to say that he had had a vision in his sleep last night, and knew when the whitecoats would put their plan into place, but he couldn't take the risk. He still had scars from the 'tests' he had experienced.

If only he could save them. If only there was a way for them to survive, be free.

Wait. He had an idea. Could that work?

Would it work?

He had to try.

* * *

I was still scanning the horizon, and we were passing over a dense patch of forest when I saw a black blob. A town.

I tilted my left wing and soared over to Fang, who was flying slightly higher than I was. I needed to tell him about what I'd decided earlier. He looked down at me, and smiled when he saw me and Bree heading towards him. I smiled slightly in response, and opened my mouth, about to say 'we need to talk'.

But then it all went black, I don't even remember beginning to fall, or closing my eyes, or anything.

Jeez, I can _never_ catch a break.

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	28. We Did What?

**Disclaimer : you know the deal. I own Phoenix and Bree. Yada yada . . . ;)**

**35 TO GO GUYS!!!!**

**Im sorry i haven't updated sooner, i just have homework, yada yada yada ;0**

**And now to reply to ErIka . . .**

**You are indeed special forever :D that made me laugh. And i wish i was ;L and culture??? Pfft, i never noticed :L well, we have fish and chips :D but i don't even like that :S no, its not new, i just felt like putting that in there **** and you stayed up late for my story! Yay :D and as for twilight. Hmmnn. I like the books, the films, not so much. But i think all the obsession over them is a bit odd. But i like the books though **

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**On with the story!!!!**

Chapter 28.

I woke up, but didn't open my eyes.

I was wearing my jeans, but nothing else. I could feel cold grass beneath me, and something warm by my side. Wait. Jeans and nothing else??

I opened my eyes to see my less than dressed upper half. I shot up into a sitting position and covered myself with my arms. How did this happen? The last thing I remember was flying towards Fang to tell him . . .

Fang?

I looked down at my side, and saw Fang lying there with a slightly confused expression, his eyes open as he looked at me. I looked around. We were some sort of clearing in the middle of a forest somewhere. It wasn't where we'd been last night, that's for sure. So where were the Flock?

Where were they?

Why was I half naked?

Why was _Fang_ half naked? His shirt was hanging of a tree in the distance.

What had happened since I blacked out?

I could feel a panic attack coming, and I turned towards Fang ready to scream at him, when I was rudely interrupted.

_**Max.**_

_Aaah, Voice. Long time, no annoy._

_**Yes, Max. But I have valuable information to why you're in this . . .predicament.**_

_You do? Spill!! _I could tell I had gone stock still, and my eyes were glazed over. Fang sat up beside me and stared at my face. Which, incidentally, was _very _distracting.

_**You and Fang have just experienced a . . . blackout.**_

_A wha-? _I began, but the Voice just kept on talking.

_**The hormones that you body produced as you went through puberty reacted with the pregnancy hormones and your bird genes. This created a build up of chemicals that resulted in you losing consciousness and blacking out while the chemicals ruled.**_

_But how did this affect Fang? He didn't get pregnant!! _Okay, ew, mental image. _And what did we do!!!!_

_**I'm getting to that, Max. Patience. When you went to talk to Fang, your eyes connected as the chemicals took over. I'm not too sure of the details on this, but it seems as if the chemicals uh, **_**jumped **_**from your body and into his, giving him the same problem. I don't know how it happened, but Fang then had a blackout as you did. **_

_So what did this blackout cause!! _I was getting sick of the Voice's dancing around. My annoyance obviously showed on my face as Fang mouthed 'what?' at me. I just shook my head and concentrated as the voice spoke again.

_**The chemicals, from what I can gather, would try and send away anybody who was not you object of . . . desire, which would be each other. Then, I think, your body would try to reproduce with the object-**_

I didn't let it finish.

_YOU MEAN ME AND FANG HAD SEX!!!!_ I screeched inside my head. But then Fang jumped and looked extremely worried. Okay, maybe I shouted it out loud as well. Hee hee. Oops.

_**Not necessarily. You both still have your jeans on, so you may have woken up before you did anything, but you may have put them back on again. I guess you'll find out in a month or so.**_

Waaaaiiitttt.

Hold. The. Freakin'. Phone.

I could be pregnant?? Again???

Oooooh, I was _pissed._

I didn't even know if that was possible, I'd only had Bree a few days ago. It shouldn't be possible. We probably didn't even do it; we still had our jeans on.

_Right?_

No answer. Oh, the shock.

I looked at Fang, my eyes wide. He didn't know anything about what had just happened. I could see he was about to scream at me to tell him what was up. And, I mean, this is Mr. Emotionless here.

So I told him. And I watched as his face slowly grew more shocked, more surprised with each second. By now we'd collected out shirts and were sat in the centre of the clearing. I knew we needed to go and get the Flock, but we needed to sort ourselves out first.

"So," Fang said, holding my hands in front of him on the grass, looking right at me, "you might be pregnant?" I could see how hard he was trying not to scream, as was I.

I mean, jeezum, I was FIFTEEN!!!!! One kid is _plenty_ thank you. I mean, I'd never get rid of Bree, but life would be easier if I didn't have to look after a baby as well. And two!!!

Hello, road to mental meltdown.

"But," he said, "there's a good chance you're not." I just nodded. I didn't really know what to say.

"We should get back, the others are probably freaking out about where we are." He just nodded, and we both got up and took off into the air.

Now, _that _was the most awkward flight ever. We didn't know what to say to each other. I mean, really, we had no idea what had just happened, just some mumbo jumbo the Voice had said.

We instinctively flew towards the clearing we had found last night, searching for the Flock the whole way in case they were out looking for us. Luckily they weren't, and we landed in the clearing to see them all sat in a circle round the fire, chatting and eating more burgers.

I ran over to them immediately.

"Tell me what happened on the way to town. Now." I snapped. I knew they were confused at my actions, but I didn't care. Iggy answered.

"Well you and Fang sort of looked at each other for ages and then you both came over to me and gave me Bree and said to go back and you'd be there soon and flew in the opposite direction. It was kinda weird. I just assumed you wanted to go and f-" I slapped my hand over his mouth, but not before Angel started screaming.

"MY EYES!! THEY BUUUURRNNN!!!!" I whacked Iggy upside the head and went over to Angel.

"Sweetie, calm down. Don't listen to Iggy's thoughts again though, okay?" She nodded. I then went over to Nudge and took Bree from her, holding her close to my chest. I put my face to her hair, smelling her baby smell.

Then I looked at everyone, staring at Fang for a little bit longer than the others. He just stared right back. How distracting. I wrenched my gaze away from him and spoke.

"Come on guys, we're going back to town. We gotta find this Itex plant."

And so, one by one, we were off.

_Again._

Can you see a pattern forming?

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	29. Thick

**Disclaimer : I don't own anything **

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**Teehee.**

Chapter 29.

In the month following the _incident_, I discovered something very interesting about myself.

I am monumentally, inconceivably, unimaginably thick.

As thick as a tree trunk. An Oak. They're pretty big, right? Pretty thick? Yeah. _That _thick. Maybe even thicker. But I don't have the time to think of another analogy. I don't even know of analogy is the right word, it just makes me sound slightly less thick.

Oh, Jeez, I sound so desperate for someone to think of me as slightly intelligent. Bah.

But in reality, I'm thicker than all of the dumbest people in the world squished together and put into my brain.

Thicker that a pigeon. At least, I think they're thick. I mean, whenever you go near them they fly away like the devil himself is on their heels (Do pigeons even have heels?). And all you wanted to do was give them a chip. Well, Angel did. You won't catch me anywhere near those rats with wings. Jeesh.

Okay, now I'm going off track.

So, I bet you wanna know _why_ I'm so impossibly, inconceivably thick?

Yeah?

Itex has been right under my nose this _entire_ time. Right under my nose.

Go on, laugh.

I've been sitting on it, practically. I've been scurrying around, searching absolutely everywhere for this supposed last Itex branch, when in reality, I never had to look at all.

Because, you see, the final Itex branch was in the library. This might not mean anything to you, but it was the exact same library we were using to _find_ the place.

And no, we did not walk in, look around and see labs and whatnot and go 'ooh, this looks a lot like an Itex branch. Oh well, let's go on the computers to search for it.' It just looked like your average town library. Y'know, shelves of books, computers and stuff.

I'd never have thought those librarians would be evil, life-sucking Itex-Whitecoat people.

Now, how did I find out about this? There is a very simple, rather embarrassing reason.

I got lost. I know, I know, the incredible Maximum Ride getting lost. And _yes, _I am aware that I have a sort of inbuilt GPS system, but for some strange reason, it didn't have the tiny library programmed in.

I'd been sat at my computer, searching for the umpteenth time for Itex. I swear, if I ever have to see Google homepage again I'll scream. But then I really needed to pee, so I stood up and walked over to Fang, who was sat at a small table near my computer, working on his laptop. I handed Bree to him.

"Here, have a baby." I smiled as he took her, and walked round him to a door behind the row of computers. Pushing through it, I scanned up and down the hallway, looking for some sort of sign to indicate I was in the right place. Seeing none, I walked down to a solid wooden door.

It didn't look very toilet-door-ish, but I thought it could be. So, being the cute, stupid mutant I am, I walked right in. Only to practically _scream_ when the antiseptic smell hit me like a tidal wave.

Of course, I didn't scream. I just froze and took in everything around me. White tables, white walls, white everything. There was no-one in the room. There were just a few stray test tubes stacked neatly in one corner, directly underneath a large, luminous sign, with huge lettering strewn across it spelling ITEX.

I stopped breathing.

I mean, I'd been barely 20 feet away from Itex for a freakin' _month_. They didn't even have the door locked! It was like they almost _wanted _me to walk right in.

Wait.

Itex is supposed to be swarming with Whitecoats all the time. It's supposed to be top secret, high security. Well, this one, anyway. The one they _really _don't want me to find. So how come I'm in this empty Itex room? Anyone know?? Anyone think they know the answer?

Let me give it to you in one word.

_Trap._

I immediately stood stock still, not even letting my chest move up and down with the tiny, shallow breaths I was taking. There was silence; I couldn't even hear Nudge who was barely20 feet away, chatting manically as always. Then I heard a tiny noise.

_Click. _A camera.

I spun on my heel and smashed through the wooden doors. I ran down the hallway, barely acknowledging the sound of shouts behind me. I skidded to a stop in front of the doors I came through and tried to push through them, but I fell backwards when they didn't budge.

I tried again, slamming my shoulder against it in an attempt to get through, but I was met with no movement at all. I could hear running footsteps and the door bursting open behind me. I turned to see about ten Whitecoats and fifteen Erasers staring at me with hungry eyes.

I could feel the adrenalin practically pour into my veins and I readied myself to fight them. It wouldn't be easy, but I figured I could take them all. I was just about to get into a fighting position when I felt a searing pain in my arm. I whipped my head to the side to see one of the Erasers leering at me in a completely gross way. I hadn't even had the time to blink, yet he'd moved from in front of me to behind me, corkscrewing both of my arms with amazing strength.

I growled and made to throw him of when another of them came at me from the front. I aimed a hard kick to his shin, but he neatly sidestepped it and continued towards me. What the heck?

Erasers didn't neatly sidestep anything. They were huge, lumber some creatures. Or so I thought.

I didn't even have time to kick him again before he placed a hard punch right to my stomach, making me gag in pain. I almost screamed, but the Eraser holding me quickly wrapped a hand over my mouth, now holing both of my arms with the one hand. I began bucking and clawing and scratching and biting in an attempt to break free of the Erasers hold, but I couldn't do a thing.

The rest of them moved in, ignoring my flailing legs. One of the Whitecoats grabbed them and bound them together with duct tape. I was in shock.

The Whitecoat was a _human_. I was superhuman. I could do anything and beat them at ease. So how was I being overpowered? Unless they weren't 100% human either . . .

I didn't have time to think about it as them all began to punch and kick me. I didn't know why they were doing this. Usually when I'm caught they just drag me of to some School. But it was just as if they had caught me to beat me up like a ragdoll this time.

I wondered how the rest of the Flock hadn't heard me yet. I was certainly making enough grunts and growls. My eyes flicked towards the door behind me for a second, and suddenly the attack stopped. I looked directly in front of me again, only to see the biggest Eraser of them all about half an inch from my face, his putrid breath fanning me.

"Don't even think about calling for the rest of your little bird-friends, girly. We've got them all. Well, we did. Untill we killed them. And your little baby too. Such a pity, it was so cute. But don't you think you're a little young to me a mommy?" He grinned at me, laughing softly.

The Flock. Dead? No. They're lying. The Flock aren't dead. They're all out there on the compters with Bree.

Bree. My baby. She can't be dead. Won't be dead. If they've touched her I'll kill them.

They're not dead.

But then why haven't they heard me?

I could feel the tears welling, no matter how hard I tried to make them stop. The Erasers and the Whitecoats just laughed. I blinked repeatedly, refusing to let the tears fall.

I began to kick with my bound legs again, trying to hurt them all as much as possible. I didn't want to believe them. But the fact that there was a tiny chance that what they were saying could be true was making me die inside.

That's when one of them pulled out a knife. I could feel my eyes widening, and I struggled even harder to get away. I bucked repeatedly, but the grip on my arms wouldn't break, and all this moving was making them be pulled higher up my back, making me want to scream again.

Then there was a flash of silver, and a searing pain across my hairline. Blood ran into my eyes, and I couldn't help it, I screamed.

The Eraser moved his hand in surprise and the noise ripped out of me. The pain was blinding, _literally_. All I could see was the redness of my blood, and feel the searing heat across my head.

That's when I heard the first scrape.

It was coming from the other side of the door, and it sounded suspiciously like a heavy object being moved. Everyone in the corridor stood still. I heard a curse from the other side, and my breathing hitched.

It was Fang.

Suddenly, the loudest scrape of all came, as well and lots of muttering and low voices, before the door suddenly flew open, revealing the Flock minus Nudge, who I could see standing back slightly holding Bree. Fang and Iggy were panting slightly, and I assumed they'd been the ones to push whatever the hell it was out of the way of the door.

Then they saw a bunch of Erasers and Whitecoats surrounding your truly, held by a super Eraser and probably looking pretty beat up.

Fang's face changed from confused to his I- Am- Going- To- Kill- You- With- My- Bare- Hands look. I love that look. It makes him look so cute. Wait, I did not just say that, I did not just sa- Oh crap, Angel is now grinning manically at me. I forgot about my mind shield for some reason while I was fighting. Silly me.

Then they pounced. In a flurry of moves that were so fast even I didn't see them, the Flock had managed to tie the enemy up with their own masking tape and free me.

_Hot Damn._ I though. That was fast.

Then Fang had grabbed me and was dabbing at my forehead, where the gash was still bleeding. He was a gentle as he could be, but it didn't stop me wincing as he cleaned it and bandaged it up with the small kit he always kept in his backpack. As soon as he was done, I wrapped my arms around him briefly, looking into his eyes. I told him _we'll talk later_ silently, and turned to the Flock.

"Thanks guys." I went and hugged each of them in turn, going to Nudge last. I didn't care that she hadn't fought, she'd been holding Bree, and I was giving her a hug anyway. I took Bree from her and looked down.

Her eyes were wide open, looking right at me. I was sure that wasn't normal. Weren't babies unable to focus on one thing for months? Oh well, she wasn't exactly normal. Her eyes were now a jet black, like Fangs, and her black hair was no longer fluffy and sparse, it was beginning to grow thick and fast, already at her ears.

"We gotta go, _before _they send more people out to kill us. We need a plan. And some sleep." Angel yawned as I said this. I walked over and took her hand, hurrying everyone out of the building.

Within five minutes we were back at our clearing again. I was describing everything that had happened. Iggy was the first to speak.

"So we've been practically _sitting_ on Itex this entire time? Damn." He punched the ground, and we all winced at we heard the slam of the skin on the ground. I could tell how frustrated everyone one at wasting all this time.

"Come on guys," I began. "There's no point beating out selves up about it. We'll figure out a plan tomorrow. I know it's still light, but let's get some sleep. It won't do any harm. I'll take first watch." I watched as everyone found a comfy spot to sleep in, watched as they all fell asleep. I felt so guilty that they couldn't have normal lives. What did they ever do to be a mutant and sleep on the cold hard floor?

I brought my knees up to my chest and hugged my stomach.

Another thing.

This morning, as soon as I had woken up, I'd had to dart onto the tree's to barf. I don't barf. Ever. Well, apart from that time I had twenty galaxy bars in half an hour, but that doesn't count. In fact, the only other time I've thrown up in the morning was when I was pregnant with Bree.

And now I'm scared. I haven't told anyone, not even Fang, because something's not right.

Because even though the fact that I'm 99% sure I'm pregnant again, which is bad enough, something's not right.

There's something even worse than your body practically _forcing_ you to become pregnant, and it succeeding.

Because when I was sick this morning, holding my stomach, I felt something hard in there. No, not an egg. Eggs are round-ish. Egg shaped.

They do not begin like an egg, then suddenly stop and become some weird texture I don't even want to think about. They certainly wouldn't make it feel like a razor blade was cutting your inside each time you twisted a certain way.

Something is definitely wrong. And to be honest, there's nothing I can do about it.

So I was sat there, against this tree wallowing in self pity and watching Fang sleeping, his arm curled protectively over Bree, when I fell asleep.

Which, for us is a big deal.

Especially if was almost freakin' _killed_ a few hours before.

Especially, when you wake up and neither Fang nor Bree are anywhere in sight.

**Review Review Review!!!! Pleaasseee ;)**

**I wanna know what you thought of this chapter :D**


	30. Memories

**Disclaimer : I don't own Maximum Ride **

**And today, i'm going to do a Claimer!**

**Claimer : I ****do**** own Phoenix and Bree! Yay :D**

**This chapter gets a lil' steamy . . . you have been warned ;)**

**And I know I don't update that much, but I've been having exams and such, so yeah :/ sorry guys.**

**I'll try and make this as long as I can, which, knowing me, won't be that much :L ah well, at least i'm honest.**

**Oh, and can someone PLEASE tell me what a beta is? I feel like such a dunce! D:**

**Okay ****on to zee chapter :D**

Chapter 30. **(OMG I made it to 30! Wow :L )**

I had an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach, and as my eyes fluttered open, I automatically counted the Flock.

Iggy. Nudge. Phoenix. Gazzy. Angel. And again. Iggy, Nudge, Phoenix, Gazzy and Angel. And again, and again, quicker each time.

_IggyNudgePhoenixGazzyAngel._

No Fang. No Bree.

I jack knifed to my feet, wincing slightly as my stomach twisted in sudden pain. I ran over to where they had fallen asleep, my head whipping from side to side as I looked for them, hoping I was just passing over them.

"Fang?" I called out. Maybe he had been very still when he was sleeping and had turned invisible. Maybe. Hopefully.

Or not.

I heard no reply. The others had begun to stir now, hearing my call and my footsteps.

"What is it Max?" Gazzy asked, rubbing sleep out of his eyes, looking too cute to be a mutant-on-the-run. I looked at him with wide, frantic eyes. Wait. Wide, frantic eyes will not help calm down a nine year old boy. I tried to calm my appearance slightly, even though on the inside I was running round like I had a major bee up my butt.

I didn't want to try and explain, my voice would probably break or something stupid like that. That would not help the whole must-keep-kids-calm plan. So I simple turned round again, scanning the small clearing again and again.

Then, I don't really know why, but I felt this kind of, _tug_, in the opposite direction. It was as if someone had tied a line of thread to my insides and was tugging gently, pulling me in a northwards direction. I know that sound disgusting, but it's the only way I can put it.

I spun around to face the rest of the Flock. They were all looking at me with a confused expression, probably wondering if their mother-figure had finally lost her marbles. Apart from Iggy and Angel. While the others were looking at me, they had briefly searched the clearing and found that Fang and Bree were gone, and knew what this would do to me.

Angels eyes were wide as she looked at me, and I could see the worry and the fear. Iggy was looking right into my eyes, and I could see fear, worry but most of all, pity. I didn't want him feeling sorry for me.

I ignored the stationary Flock and followed the tug, walking quickly towards a large oak tree. It was the tree Fang and Bree had fallen asleep under. I didn't know what this feeling was, if it was some sort of trick or something else. I reached the base of the tree, and the feeling stopped.

I froze. I could hear the tiniest, faintest breathing. Bree's breathing. "Bree? Bree, baby, where are you?" I cooed softly, not wanting to startle her, wherever she was. I was amazed that my voice didn't break, but I could hear a tiny tremble.

I was feeling a sickening sense of déjà vu. Had fang left us again? Even after I'd had Bree? I could feel an ache rise in my chest right where my heart was. I know, it's corny, but it actually felt as though my heart was breaking. I didn't even know if he had gone, but the possibility, the _probability_, was terrifying.

Then, almost comically, Bree popped into existence right by my feet, blinking her eyes slowly. I just gaped at her, mildly aware of the gasps from the Flock behind me. Relief was rushing through me as I realised she was here, she hadn't been taken. After a few seconds, I came to my senses and picked my baby up, holding her close to my chest. I face the Flock.

"What . . . was _that?_" I heard Iggy say. He was staring at Bree in my arms, as if by looking hard enough he could find the answer. I glanced down at her again, seeing her black hair. It made me think of something.

"Wait, if she only became visible again when she woke up, that could mean she's been entirely still before." I paused, and watched understanding dawn on Angels face while everyone else just looked confused. "So that means, if she'd still for long enough, she can turn invisible. Just like Fang! Our powers must be hereditary!" Everyone began to nod and smile slightly.

Then I felt another tug in my stomach.

Fang. He was still gone.

I could feel my face fall again as I turned and followed the gut feeling, hearing the Flock instinctively stop moving and become silent. I gripped Bree tighter as I entered the dark woods.

I was looking all around as I walked, and could see some scuff marks on the dirty ground. There was also a chunk of bark missing from one of the trees. I focused on the feeling, following in deeper and deeper into the darkness.

My skin was crawling with unease, and I could feel the muscles in the back of neck beginning to tense slightly.

I was having to peer more and more as I continued to walk, trying to cover Bree as much as possible with my arms, and hearing the Flock almost silently behind me. Then, again, the feeling just cut out.

I didn't dare call out to Fang, it was so dark and creepy, I could just hear a tinny voice in the back of my brain shouting _NO! Don't shout! _It wasn't the Voice, voice, just my subconscious.

Then, my gaze zoned in on a tiny post-it note pinned to a tree with a thorn. Moving almost silently, I reached forward to grab it. I had to shift it in order to get in under a patch of light filtering down through the trees, and began to read.

_Maximum, _it said. I could feel my chest tighten. This was bad. Very, very bad.

_I am sure you will have found this note in order to try and find your mate, Fang._ I think that was when I stopped breathing.

_I have to inform you that at this very spot, Fang was taken my Itexicon corporations best workforce. If you wish to get him back, you must come to our headquarters, where a deal will be made. WE promise not to kill him, although he may be . . . in a slightly worse condition than before._

_Yours sincerely, _

_The Itexicon Head Corporation._

There was complete, utter silence.

I could hear my tiny, choked breaths. I could hear Bree snoozing gently in my arms, unaware that her father was being held captive by the sickest, most twisted creatures on this earth.

The Flock were shifting nervously behind me, breathing heavily, obviously wondering what the note said, and what my reaction was all about.

"What does it say on the note? I mean, it's really tiny, so it can't say much, that should mean there's nothing bad on it, right, Max? I mean, Fang's probably just gone for food or something. Why has your breathing gone all funny, Max? What does the note say? It's all tiny, and cute. I like cute things. Total was cute, but I haven't seen him for _ages_, 'cos he's still on honeymoon with Akila in France, But still I- Wait, why are you crying, Max? I hate to cry, actually, I can't reme-"

I turned around to face Nudge, who was still babbling on, unaware of what had happened. She stopped when she saw my expression, I dreaded to think of what it looked like. I could feel tiny tears coursing down my cheeks silently. I walked over to Iggy and handed him a sleeping Bree, and the note that had broken my heart.

"Take her. Read the note. I need to be alone." I didn't care that my voice broke only about a gazillion time in those three short sentences. I turned and walked further into the woods, blocking out the noises of the Flock behind me. I walked for about twenty minutes, keeping my tears in check, only letting out a few at a time, but slipping each time my stomach hurt.

Eventually I found a semi-rotten log and sat on a section that looked like it wouldn't collapse beneath me. I was pretty sure the Flock couldn't hear me anymore, but to be honest, I didn't really care.

I let it all out. I cried, I sobbed, I shrieked. Fang had been taken. To the headquarters of Itex in some godforsaken country somewhere. By the scum of the earth. Away from the Flock, Bree, me.

I sobbed even harder when the strange _thing_ in my stomach made itself known. Fang wasn't here to help me. I felt so lonely. I gripped my torso, my eyes squeezed shut, trying to escape the ache in the centre of my chest. My brain kept replaying memories.

_Fang play fighting with me when we were twelve, laughing and leaning against each other in exhaustion._

_Fang holding me as I cried silently when Jeb left. No-one knew it had affected me so badly apart from Fang. He knew everything. He was my best friend, everything._

_Fang smiling at me as we flew to Africa, and my heart fluttering in response._

And, most importantly, the night Fang and I made love.

* * *

_I had woken up early on the day of Total and Akila's wedding so I could get a decent breakfast before Iggy left with the others. Me + cooking of any kind = __absolute disaster._

_I trudged down the stairs in my scruffy pyjamas, rubbing my eyes like a child in order to make them freakin' open. I hate early mornings. I stomped into the kitchen and slid into a seat in time for Iggy to slide a huge bacon sandwich in front of me .My mouth started to water as I smelt it .I scoffed it down in record time, looking at the rest of the Flock and my Mom and Ella eat their sandwiches too. I was surprised Fang hadn't been woken up by the smell of the bacon yet. _

_I finished my sandwich and stared glumly at my empty plate. Then, as if by magic, Iggy handed me another. I always wondered how the blind kid knew so much._

"_Thanks, Iggs." I smiled at him, even though he couldn't see. He probably guessed though, as he smiled right back._

"_Max," My mom began. "We're all going to head into town now to get some last minute things for the wedding. We'll leave you here to wake Fang up." At this, I saw Iggy smirk to himself and I slapped his arm lightly, "We'll be a couple of hours, is that alright?"_

_I nodded, smiling, and watched as they all collected their things and filed out of the room, Nudge blabbering on about how 'fetch' her dress was._

_I smiled slightly again, and grabbed a selection of breakfast things before placing them on a tray. I walked slowly up the stairs, trying not to spill any food off the mountain I had made. I turned down the hallway and used my elbow to open Fang's door. I'd only been in his room a few times before._

_I walked in and shut the door behind me by pushing it into place with my back. I turned to see Fang awake, his arms behind his head, staring at the ceiling._

"_I brought us breakfast." I said quietly, smiling slightly. He smiled back in response and climbed atop the covers, patting the place next to him for me to sit down on. He was only wearing a pair of baggy pyjama pant and a tight t-shirt, and I tried not to stare at his chest as I sat next to him. _

_I sat cross legged beside him, the tray in between us as we ate silently. I didn't tell him I'd already eaten, I was just hungry all the time. He probably knew anyway, he could read me like a book. I kept sneaking tiny glances at him while we ate. It felt an electric buzz somewhere in my abdomen._

_I hadn't realised we'd been eating so fast until I noticed the empty tray beside me. I put it down by the bed , on the floor, and turned to face Fang. I stared into his eyes for what seemed like _ages_. I could feel some sort of tension building in my gut, and I had no idea what it was. I wanted to jump on him, pounce on him, and do things I'd never even thought about before in my life._

_God knows if it was hormones, but I couldn't take it anymore and leaped on him. We fell backwards at an alarming speed as I clung to him. I crushed my mouth to him and began to kiss him furiously. We were kissing for about five minutes when my hands started to slip beneath Fang's shirt._

_I don't know what made me do it, but it just felt so _right_ at the time, I didn't really think about it. I traced whorls and patterns on the bronze skin, revelling in its smoothness, when he suddenly flipped us so he was on top, with me beneath him. I had the lurching feeling that this wasn't just kissing any more, and when he slipped his tongue between my lips, I moaned. _

_I also blushed furiously. Why did I moan? We'd kissed like this a couple of times before, and I'd never moaned then. But, then again, I hadn't been feeling this amazing sensation throughout my body that made everything ten times better._

_Then, Fang gripped my hips with his strong hands and gently brought them to his. I didn't stop kissing him, but opened my eyes wide with shock, staring at his still-closed eyelids. I could feel him smirking into the kiss after my moan, kissing me even harder. It was time for _me_ to take control._

_I flipped us over again so I was lying on his stomach without breaking the kiss. Then, with a new surge of confidence that came from nowhere, I put my knee between his legs. I could feel his, er, __happiness__there._

_He froze, staring at me in shock. To be honest, I was in more shock than him, I was just hiding it. I was shocked at my boldness, and . . . Fang's _situation_. I'd never have though Fang would be, er, like that._

_I grinned impishly at him, however, and leaned down to kiss him again. But, unfortunately, he stopped me._

"_Max, stop." His expression was all 'I don't want this', but his eyes didn't lie, I could see everything in them. I loved how I could read him so well, like I could read his mind. I ignored him._

"_Why?" I asked, letting my hair drape onto his chest, looking up through my eyelashes. I know, I know. The great Maximum Ride, flirting? I could hardly believe it myself, but I knew what I wanted. "We both want to, it's obvious." I moved my leg from side to side slowly, watching how his face seemed to twist as I did so. Then he did something totally unexpected._

_He groaned. Fang never, never groaned. Or made any kind of noise apart from the odd word, or a grunt. Well, apart from when he was with me. I was that cool._

"_I don't want to go too far Max, I- I" he tried to speak again, but I wasn't having any of it. I began to kiss him furiously again, almost pulling away in shock at my actions. I'd never have believed I would do this. With Fang, with anyone. _

_I begun to lift his shirt up, and grinned into the kiss when I felt him surrender beneath me. I pulled the shirt of, and let my hands train delicately over his chest, almost giggling when he shivered slightly. I know, I never giggle, but these feeling inside me were too hard to control._

_He flipped us again, and I pulled away from him to smile, I hope, sexily up at him. He grinned back at me, and moved to gently slide my shirt up. I let him do so, we continued like this for a while._

_When we were both ready, Fang staked his claim on me in a way I'd never thought about before. He was so gentle, yet so amazing and passionate at the same time. It made me tingle just thinking about it. I loved it, I loved him. _

_We had lain there for a while after, but jumped up and began to dress hurriedly when the Flock returned. Throughout the rest of the day, we would send little glances to each other, and sometimes I would see him staring off into space, a look of wonder on his face, and I knew he was recounting out earlier events. _

_And then I returned to find that letter. I had felt so stupid. I knew deep inside I was wrong, but I couldn't help thinking Fang had gotten what he'd wanted, and now had buggered of to do whatever the hell he wanted._

_But it had all changed now._

* * *

I snapped my eyes open again. I had stopped crying, but my arms were still wrapped around my torso and I was hunched over.

I refused to break down like I had last time. I had to get Fang back; I had to save him from Itex.

I made my way back through the forest slowly, trying to remember my way. I could feel that little tug again, and I wondered if it was a new power, or a bird thing. I mean, this tug wasn't as strong as Bree's and Fang's, but I reckoned it was because they were my family that this tug was there. It could prove very handy later on.

After about an hour of slow walking, I returned to the clearing. The younger set all had puffy red eyes and tear-streaked cheeks, and even Phoenix and Iggy's eyes looked a little watery.

When they saw me, they all stood up and looked at me, almost as if they were waiting for me to collapse in sobs. Not this time. My cry-baby time was over; it was time to be leader again. I walked over to Iggy and took Bree from him.

"Come on guys, let's get going. We've got Itex to blow to smithereens and Fang to save, lets hit the road." I smiled slightly as I said this, and the others seemed to leech my confidence, and gave small, wobbly smiles in return. We were on the road to Hell, otherwise known as Itex.

_Fang, we're coming to get you._

**Soo, how was it? Please review! :D :D**


	31. Capture

**IMPORTANT NOTICE! : I HAVE CHANGED MY NAME FROM NIKZ34 TO BACON-NINJA.**

**Disclaimer : I don't own Maximum Ride **

**Claimer : I do own Phoenix and Bree! Yay :D**

**Hmmnn. I think my summary is a bit rubbish. Anyone wanna give me new one? Please =D**

**Oo, and to Cayology : It's awesome how you love my story :D uuh, im planning on making it a fair bit longer, ;) and the other day, i thought of this story line, so I might do a follow up too :D**

**And this chapter has one tiny bit of swearing in it. Just to warn ya.**

Chapter 31.

Fang was thrown into the cold room by a couple of big, burly Whitecoats and crawled into the corner. At least he'd gotten a room this time, and not a freakin' crate. There was a sharp _smack_ as his head hit the painted white wall.

The door was slammed shut and he heard the footsteps slowly fade away down the hall. He shuffled to the corned and wrapped his arms around his knees. He rested his chin on them, and kept an eye on the white door directly opposite him.

Ugh, his head was _killing_ him. The last thing he could remember was waking up to see a dark figure standing over him with a black cloth in his hand. He reached around to the back of his head and felt something wet and tacky in his hair. He looked at his red stained fingers. Blood.

Great, a head injury. Whoop-te-doo. He slammed his head into the wall in frustration, then hissed in pain. _You dumbass, Fang._

Why the hell was _he _here anyway? If they were going to pick anyone out of the Flock, it would be Max or Angel. Max was the leader, the first viable experiment, and Angel was wonder girl, possessor of a gazillion powers. Fang was just an experiment. Nothing special. He only had one power.

As far as whitecoats knew, anyway.

And what had they done to Max? She'd been on watch. How could they have gotten past her? They must have done something . . .

The thought made Fang's blood boil. And now he was stuck here in this stupid Itex branch, unable to do anything at all. His eyes traced the walls, looking for anything that could aid his escape. A window, a wooden door. There was nothing.

A small white plaque directly opposite caught his eye.

_Itexicon Headquarters, Amsterdam._

Shit. He was at the headquarters? In _Amsterdam? _The Amsterdam in freakin' _Europe? _How the hell was Max going to get over here?

His thoughts were cut off by the heavy metal door being unlocked and swinging open. A woman in a black blazer and a short red dress came clacking into the room in her high heels. Her eyes fell on Fang immediately, and she mouthed his name silently, before slowly walking towards him, a small smile on her face. She knelt in front of him, pushing her dark brown hair out of her eyes.

Fang stared up at the woman kneeling in front of him. Her golden eyes seemed endless as she stared at him relentlessly.

He kept his expression blank as she scrutinised him, trying not to let the hurt and the pain and the anger show through. His mind kept returning to Max, he couldn't focus on the task in hand.

Even though the strange woman was now batting her eyelids at Fang while she stared, he couldn't help but think of Max. She would be trying to keep the Flock together, probably attempting an attack on Itex this very second.

God, he loved Max so much. He loved the way her hair whipped around her as she flew, the way she would change from an angry warrior to a mother in a split second. He loved the way she acted differently just for him, the way she actually _loved_ him with all her heart, as he had for years.

He loved that she loved him so much she let him love her in _every way._

He loved her so much he could tell what was happening to her. He knew she never, ever threw up, and that she had yesterday morning. And that whenever she turned, her eyes twitched slightly in pain. He knew she must be pregnant again.

He hated himself for that. He didn't even know he'd done anything! He wanted to be with Max right now more than anything.

"Fang? What are you thinking about?" The woman's disgustingly flirty voice snapped him out of his thoughts. He just glared at her, and she pouted ever so slightly.

He turned his head to the side, jaw clenched. The woman obviously got the message, and got up and walked out of the room, waving slightly as she went. He watched as the door slowly swung shut, hearing the click of the key locking it.

Fang was worried now. Who was this woman? She'd just walked in and started _flirting_ with him. It made him sick. Was this some new kind of sick game Itex was planning? What the hell were they trying to do with him?

And now he was alone again. He absently scratched his wrist while he was quietly seething. But then he felt something there, and looked down to see a thick black band. It had a tiny red light flashing repeatedly at him. _What's this for? Torture? For recording everything I do?_

He turned it round and round on his wrist, trying to find some sort of clasp, but finding none. _Great. _

* * *

Valencia Martinez smiled and waved as Ella climbed onto the school bus, turning in her seat to blow her mother a quick kiss before starting a conversation with her friends.

Smile slipping, Dr. Martinez turned and walked back into her small home, closing the door softly behind her. She went straight up to her room and began to dig around in her closet until she found the old, tattered photo album. She hadn't remembered owning this until this morning, when Ella was babbling on about some photo club she'd started at school.

Sitting on her bed, Dr. Martinez turned each page until she found the photo she was looking for. She gasped softly, and shut it with a _bang_.

She knew she wasn't going mad when she saw Phoenix. She though back to the picture again. The picture of Valencia Martinez and her younger sister, Lucia Martinez, who almost no-one knew about. The two sisters were wearing matching white sundresses, despite the five year age gap. They both had thick, wavy dark hair, but only Lucia had their fathers golden eyes, his fine features. Valencia had always looked like their mother.

The two sisters had always been at each other's throats, as sisters often are, but Lucia took it to another level. A level that had forced her family never to speak of her again, a level that made Valencia's blood boil.

Lucia had been the one who had forced Valencia to donate the egg that became Max. She had been one of the three main founders of Itex. She was a traitor.

She was Phoenix's mother.

**Okay guys, i know its short, sorry. I'm off to France tomorrow, at 5am -_-, so I won't be updating for another week **

**Buuut. I'd like you guys to submit a new power for Fang! I could think of my own, but I wanna involve the readers! **

**Thaaaaanks :D review please!**


	32. Oh No

**Disclaimer : Me no own Maximum Ride and all associated characters. **

**OMG guys! You're reviews are amazing! They really make my day! I love going on my email and seeing a little sign saying NEW REVIEW. It just makes me so happy :d I love them. Keep it up!**

**And your suggestions for Fangs new power have been great! I think I know which I'm gonna go for, but some extra suggestions would be great! I was hoping that it would somehow be connected to Max, but you seemed to have done that anyway! :D**

**And thanks to those of you who wished me a good time in France; it was awesome! :L**

**On with the Chapter!**

Chapter 32.

I checked my poor, now battered watch that Fang had given to me so long ago. 7 am. Time to wake everyone up. I moved from position resting on a tree and looked up to see Angel sat up, her arms curled around her knee's, a disgusted look on her face.

We'd arrived at this tiny clearing nearer to Itex last night, so we could ambush it with ease. Me and Iggy had stayed up late into the night discussing our plan of action, and had been planning on telling the younger ones as soon as I'd woken them up after my watch.

I silently crawled over to Angel, taking a quick 360 on the way just to be safe, although I don't see how Erasers would make her screw her face up in disgust. I grabbed her gently and placed her into my lap, concentrating on the tug that told me where Bree was sleeping invisibly at the same time.

"Angel, what is it?" I asked her, turning her round to face me and gently prying open her eyes. She looked up at me, looking scared, and like she was about to be sick. I began to get more worried. "You can tell me anything, Angel. Please. Don't get me all worried." I gave a half smile in an attempt to make myself look slightly more cheerful.

Her eyes were unusually wide as she began talking. "It's Iggy." MY blood began to run cold, and I tensed slightly. "I don't know what he's doing, I don't understand it. I don't know _what_ it is. And what he's feeling. But it makes me feel all . . . weird. I dunno. It's really freaking me out, Max" I pulled her slightly closer to me.

"Would you be able to show me what you're getting from him?" I looked at her as she nodded slightly , and closed her eyes in concentration. I gasped slightly as the strange sensation as what Angel was receiving streamed into my mind. Then I saw _what_ Angel was receiving. And my blood went hot, hot, hot baby.

"Close your mind from Iggy. Now." She looked slightly worried, but seeming did as I asked, as she looked more relieved. Then I moved her of my lap and stood up before stalking to the woods.

I waited until my yelling wouldn't be quite as loud. Then I began.

"IGGY!"

And I waited. And waited. And then about two minutes later Iggy came rushing through the woods, panting, with his strawberry blonde hair ruffled and sticking up at various angles. He just had to look at my expression to see what I meant. He immediately looked terrified.

I was giving him my famous death glare look for about five minutes until I figured he was successfully scared out of his wits. Then I began.

"You IDIOT." He flinched slightly. "I woke up to find Angel curled up in a ball with her face screwed up! She now knows stuff she shouldn't have until she was fifteen! She's seven Iggy!"

He just stood there looking at his feet, a dusting of pink covering his cheekbones.

"Well? What do you have to say for yourself? You just took away her innocence! You shouldn't be doing stuff like that anyway! You sexist pig!" He looked up then, anger in his eyes.

I'd never admit it, but at that point, I was scared. I mean, any of us could look scary if we want to, but Fang and Iggy are the worst. Maybe it's because their guys. But now I was trying to keep my composure as Iggy stared at me, looking like he wanted to strangle me with his bare hands. Maybe I shouldn't have called him a sexist pig. It just slipped out; I was so used to calling him it anyway.

"You're such a hypocrite, Max." He said quietly. It seemed that I was able to intimidate more my shouting and being loud, but all Iggy had to do was talk in this soft tone to make me shiver on the inside. "_I _shouldn't be doing something like that? What about you and Fang? You've done _much _worse. We could have come back at any time, and then Angel would know stuff she shouldn't know untill she's _eighteen_. You always think that you're the best. Oh, the amazing max can do no wrong. But if anyone else does what she's been doing, well, they're so _sexist _and _stupid _and _wrong_. You make me _sick _Max. I can't do anything without you criticising it. I kept Bree a secret. I didn't tell anyone. I comforted you, I cared for you. I didn't even _mention_ what you and Fang had done, and the fact you're only fifteen. But when I do something not even half as bad as that? Noooo. Iggy's in the wrong. As always." He was almost shouting by the end.

I stood there in silence. It felt like I'd just been stabbed in the heart. Fang had been captured again, Iggy hated me, and I _was_ a total hypocrite. I just wanted to retaliate so bad. I could feel my mouth opening and closing as my instinct to have the upper hand fought to break out. But I didn't say anything. Iggy was right. I hung my head in shame. I couldn't _believe _this.

"I can see you're thinking of what to say Max. But you know what? I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear whatever lame excuse you come up with to make you the innocent one here again. I just don't care. I think you're a _slut_. I mean, who gets pregnant at fifteen? Sluts do. I can't believe I've put up with your crap so long."

I sucked in a breath. That was too far. I deserved the rest of it, but that? That was too much. Did he think I'd _planned _all this? Did he think I'd _wanted _a baby at fifteen? No. I could feel the tears begin to well up in my eyes, but I squeezed them shut so they wouldn't leak out. I kept my head down, and I could hear Iggy's ragged breathing in front of me. I turned my head away slightly, wishing I was anywhere else but here.

"Max? Max, I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have said that." Iggy was whispering. I could barely hear him as he walked forwards slowly. I squeezed my eyes shut, but couldn't help the few tears that fell.

"Max? Oh, don't cry. I really didn't mean it, Max." He walked forwards a bit more, and I looked up to see his arms dithering between at his sides and outstretched. He saw my expression and his face twisted. Good.

"Stay away from me." I spoke very quietly, and I was proud to notice my voice barely broke. Talk about kicking a horse when it's down, Iggy. I began to turn away, trying to ignore the sound of his footsteps behind me. I opened my mouth to scream at him to _leave me alone_, when my stomach exploded in pain.

My eyes widened and I feel to my knees involuntarily; the pain made it unable to stand properly. Iggy dropped down beside me, and I forgot about what he's said as I stared at him with wide eyes, clutching my stomach. My mouth opened again and I let out a tiny whimper. It felt like someone was shredding my stomach apart from the inside. Iggy was staring at me, wide eyes.

"What is it, Max? What's wrong?" He was speaking quickly obviously panicked. I just gaped at him, then leaned forward as another wave of pain hit me. I downright moaned this time. It was even worse that when I'd had Bree. Iggy looked terrified. I looked at my stomach, and all of a sudden pulled it up to reveal my torso. I gaped at it, surprised by the obviousness of my bump. Iggy gasped too.

"You'r-" He was cut off by me suddenly yelping in pain again. I looked up at him again.

"Iggy, my baby. It's my baby, Iggy. What's happening?" I know, I know, Max the invincible being a weak baby, but at the time, I really couldn't care less. Something was wrong with my baby. Mine and Fang's baby. Our baby. Iggy was still just kneeling there, looking gobsmacked. I would have slapped him if I wasn't suddenly doubled over in pain again.

That's when I felt it. The stickiness. "Iggy. Take of my jeans," I managed to gasp out. "Now." He looked like he was about to protest, but then he gently pushed me onto my back before unbuckling and sliding of my jeans. Then I heard him gasp. I lifted my head so I could see. I almost fainted when I saw the blood that was coating the insides of my legs, soaking my panties.

I began to cry.

I know. Again. But I knew what had happened. I'd lost my baby. I'd known something wasn't right from the beginning, but I'd never expected this to happen. I'd lost Fang again, been called a slut by Iggy, and had now lost my baby. What a perfect twelve hours.

My body began to shake slightly with sobs, and Iggy crawled up to cradle my head.

"Oh, Max. I'm so sorry." He whispered. He knew it too. I could see how guilty he felt by looking into his eyes, but I didn't care. Another cramp hit my stomach and I shot up again, almost head butting Iggy on the way as I held my stomach.

Then it stopped. I knew it was over. The grass had somehow become soaked in blood. IT must have lasted longer than I'd thought. It only seemed like it had been a few minutes. I felt empty inside, and queasy, like I was about to throw up. The world was spinning slightly in front of me.

"Iggy, please, don't let the Flock see me like this. Get some water of something." He nodded, still looking shell shocked. He went to fetch some water, and gently cleaned me up in silence. I felt so weak and helpless. I hated it. But I was too weak to do it myself, and I refused to let the others see me like this. Then I got redressed and let Iggy help me limp to the clearing.

"I'm sure we can wait another day before destroying Itex. You need to rest." I nodded my head, eyes closed. I heard the Flock talking as we neared the clearing, and felt Iggy lay me down on a blanket, before taking Bree from someone else and laying her near me. I sighed gently, trying not to think about everything that had happened to me in the last year. I just wanted to sleep and relax. To a certain extent. I could hear Iggy quietly explaining what had happened, but I just rolled over slightly and forced myself to sleep.

**Okay, I don't really know how I did here guys :/ I've obviously never been that that situation, so I kinda guessed. I'm sorry, please don't murder me for making Iggy an ass. He was just frustrated and didn't mean to say it.**

**I don't particularly like this chapter, it's kinda a filler. Important stuff will happen in the next one though! :D**

**Please Review! Even if its to say you hate the ****chapter. Which would make me sad :/ so maybe not :L:L aaah well. Jeez, i'm babbling. Just review anyway please! :D**


	33. Dreams

**Disclaimer : I don't own Maximum ride **

**OMGOMGOMGOMG I AM SO SORRY GUYS!**

**I wish I could have updated sooner! It's been killing me, but I've had this HUGE History assessment to complete, and I've had to work on it every night!**

**I'm so so so so so sorry! I feel so guilty! Please forgive me!**

**I've had loads of reviews saying please update, but I honestly haven't had the time! Please please forgive me!**

Chapter 33.

Fang. Fang was the first thing I saw in my dream. I was sort of standing in this hazy white field, and I could see him in the distance. My head felt funny, and everything seemed like it was spinning around me. He was just a tiny splodge of darkness in this freaky white place.

I began to stumble forwards, trying to find my way even though I couldn't see a floor beneath my feet. There seemed to be white fog everywhere, and the closer I got to Fang, the thicker it seemed to get. He looked frustrated with something, and also confused. I tried calling out to him, but it was like my mouth had been duck-taped shut (a feeling I knew all too well); I couldn't move my mouth, or make a proper sound.

I thought I saw him mouth my name, and I began to stumble forwards again, but the fog became even thicker. I was ready to scream in frustration.

**Stop.**Aaah. Hello Voice. I ignored it, and tried to find a way around the thick wall of white. It seemed to be coming from somewhere apart from my mind though, as I saw Fang flinch slightly at the sound and look around.

**I said stop it, Max. It's no use. I've blocked him off. The closer you try and get, the less chance you'll have of reaching him at all.**

_What? Why? What the hell is this, anyway?_ I though back to it, since I couldn't make a sound.

**Patience, Max. **Geez.

_Why are you here? Why is Fang here? Why-_

**I am here because I created this . . . Dream-State, so that I could explain what happened to you, and to Fang, without taking valuable time off of you. Now, if you could just stand quietly, I will explain everything.**

_That's great and all, but how is Fang here?_

**I said patience. **I sighed, irritated. **Fang will explain that to you himself. I am only to tell you what happened to you yesterday. You remember it, yes? **I nodded, even though I had no idea where I should be looking. I didn't want to think about it. I just wanted to forget. I saw Fang sitting down in the strange whiteness, looking at me, a confused look on his normally impassive face.

**That happened because of a variety of reasons. I am sure you are aware that what happened was both extremely painful as well as bloody? **Well, that was one way to out it. I nodded yet again, flinching slightly at the memory.

**I would assume you know that as far at the normal situation is concerned, your miscarriage was far more vicious and painful. **I didn't, actually, but I nodded all the same, noticing how Fang suddenly shot up into a standing position at the word 'miscarriage'.

**That is because, when you had your 'Blackouts', the bird chemicals in your body were much more dominant. This then triggered a series of reactions. The first being that the bird DNA you both have in your bodies is different. Max, you have Saker Falcon DNA, and Fang, you have Black Kite DNA. In the bird world, bird do not mate with birds of other species. No-one really knows why, but we think, and you have proven, that this can cause deformities in the offspring.**

I was stood straight up like Fang now, looking in his eyes. Everything was beginning to make sense now. And who the hell was _we?_

**Also, because you're bird chemicals were so prominent, I think that that was what encouraged the growth of half an egg around your babies. That was why it hurt you so much, Max, because this edges was razor sharp, and they kept cutting your insides. You needn't worry about it now, though. Yesterday, when you were fighting with Iggy,- **I saw Fangs eyes narrow slightly. **when you turned to walk away, you pulled the foetus's slightly out of alignment, and this then somehow caused your body to realise that the babies were not **_**viable**_**, and would not have a proper life. It then self aborted them.**

There was silence. So many things were running through my head. _I _had aborted my babies? What? I had _killed_ them? I felt dizzy, and I sat down.

Wait.

_Babies?_ I questioned?

**Yes. As I said, you were more bird-like then, and birds have more than one baby at a time, Max.**

_I know that. But, how many?_

There was a pause.

**Four.**

I choked. If I could have cried, I would have. But it seemed impossible in this strange white world. _Four_ babies. That must have been why it had hurt so much, and all that blood . . . I had known there was something wrong the moment I'd woken up in that clearing with Fang. I'd _known._

I guess I hadn't realised that my danger senses were tingling.

How freakin' _stupid _am I?

**I'll leave you both to talk now.**

The fog disappeared, but I didn't move. I brought my knee's up to my chest. _What had I done?_

I could hear Fang's quiet footsteps as he ran towards me. I didn't move. He crouched down beside me and wrapped an arm around me. I leaned into his shoulder slightly. WE stayed like that for I don't know how long. Minutes? Hours? All I knew is that I was with Fang.

Speaking of which.

"Fang, why are you here?" I could finally talk, it was like the Voice had taken all of the earlier restrictions with it when it had left.

He turned slightly to be in front of me. "Why, don't you want me here?" His expression was black, but I could see a flicker of hurt in his eyes.

"What? Of course I do! I was just, y'know, wondering how you're in my _dream. _It sounds like something out of a book."

"Oh." He chuckled slightly, his expression lightening. "Well, let's just say I found out a new power." He smirked, looking up at me with his gorgeous, deep, dark, eyes that- STOP IT MAX!

I blinked. "Oh. Cool. So. Dream-walking?" He nodded. I didn't smile. I just felt empty. He seemed to realise that and pulled me into his arms. I sat on the hard white floor and curled up into him. I just wanted to relax; so much had been happening in my life recently.

"Where are you being held?" I whispered. I didn't want to break the silence, but if I could find out where Fang was, maybe we could find him sooner.

"The Itex Headquarters, in A-" He made a chocking noise. I bolted up and turned round, but there was no Eraser standing behind him, chocking him, it was just Fang sat there with a confused expression. "In A-" He tried again. "I can't say it. I guess my dream-walking has its drawbacks . . . like not being able to give _important_ information." He pouted slightly.

I gave a small smile. He wouldn't act like this for anyone else. For others, he'd just shrug it off. I loved how he acted naturally around me. I stroked his stuck-out lower lip with my pinkie. Then again, _I _would never act like this around anyone else.

I smirked slightly at his expression, and gave him a quick peck on the lips. I didn't know how long it would be until I saw Fang properly again; I might as well make the most of him in my dreams. He just grinned back at me and grabbed my hips, pulling me closer to him. I grinned back and leaned in to kiss him again.

But then Fang beat me to it, moving in so fast I didn't know what was happening, and pressing his mouth to mine. I wrapped his thick black hair around my fingers and moved closer, so I was practically straddling him. He deepened the kiss, and I smiled into it; he sure was impatient.

I could feel myself growing dizzy, and I broke away for air, but Fang's lips never left me. He then began to move down and kiss my throat, my collarbone, my shoulders, before sucking on the side of my neck, probably giving me a love bite. I pulled away and gave him my special evil-dagger-glare, but gave up as soon as I saw him smile mischievously.

He moved in and kissed me again, more passionately that before. I gasped into his mouth, and he chuckled quietly. My hands moved down his back and slipped under his shirt, feeling the hard muscles. Fang's hands had just begun to creep under my shirt when –

**It's time for you to wake up now, Max.**

I just had time to roll my eyes and give Fang one last peck before I was opening my eyes to see Angel crouched beside me, a concerned look on her face.

I sat up slowly, holding my now-throbbing head. "What is it sweetie?" I asked, doing a quick scan of the clearing. It looked like it was about three in the afternoon.

"What's that funny red mark on your neck?"

_Fang, you are so dead._

"It's nothing, Angel. Now, where's the grub?"

* * *

Fang bolted upright, breathing heavily. That was the first time he'd Dream-walked with someone he actually knew. He hadn't realised you could . . . interact.

Then he heard faint, delicate breathing. He turned his head to see the woman from before sat on a small stool, looking at him with a smile on her face.

He immediately scooted backwards into the wall, looking at her through his eyelashes as she began to walk over to him. She stopped when she was barely a foot away from him, and stared hard at him, that sickly sweet smile still in place.

"Fang. My name is Lucia Martinez. I'm sure you know of my sister, _Valencia_" She hissed the last part, before returning to her little girl voice once more. "I'm here to over look your, er, stay here. I've been monitoring you for that past few hours. Can you tell me what happened when you were sleeping?" She even had a notebook and pencil out at the ready.

Fang didn't move, didn't make a sound. He just gave this Lucia daggers. He was still thinking about the fact she had said that she was Max's mom's sister. That meant she was related to Max.

Lucia glared at Fang when he didn't say anything. She crouched down slightly and leaned closer, whispering into his ear. "You're times gonna come, birdie boy, you just wait." Before turning and clacking out of the room. Fang bared his teeth slightly in anger. He hadn't got the name Fang for nothing.

That was the day the _'Experiments' _started.

**Did you know, that I actually did some research for this chapter! How dudey :L:L **

**Please Review! I will love you forever. **

**And yes, I did choose Dream-walking as Fan's new power, it seemed very popular. I'm sorry to those of you who suggested duplication, it just didn't seem to fit right in my storyline, maybe it could be a power for another character?**

**Review and tell me your opinions!**

**Peace out and fly on :D**


	34. Beginning of a Fight

**Discalaaaaaaimer : Me no own.**

**Claaaaaaaaimer : I do own my plotline (cheer), Phoenix and Bree (cheer cheer)**

**Oh em geez. I got eleven reviews on the last chapter!**

**And to dweebface : you perv :D**

**On with the chapter!**

Chapter 34 (O: wowee . . .)

Phoenix sat silently by the fire, watching at the flames flickered, curling around the pan Iggy was gently holding above it. The screech from his claws scraping against the cold stone in his hand didn't affect him as he zoned out completely.

He was still trying to figure out his plan, his loophole around what had been programmed in him. He knew that if he didn't help Max to find the Itex headquarters within the month he would be hunted down and killed.

But that would mean that either he dies, or he sent the Flock to their deaths. Phoenix traced the long white scar that stretched from his elbow to his middle finger gently with a pearly claw. That was the scar his mother had given to him when he was five; he'd cried when they'd whipped him, so Lucia had taken a blade from the counter and turned against him. That would be the mind of thing Fang would be experiencing now.

Except they wouldn't wait for him to cry to slice open his body with a knife.

Since Fang had 'saved' Phoenix, they'd become close. Fang was the closest thing to family Phoenix had, with the exception of his mother. Not that he considered Lucia Martinez as a mother. What kind of a mother would torture their little boy? Experiment on him? Give him _wings_ and _claws?_

But, he couldn't kill her, could he? Not that he didn't have the motives, or the strength, but would it be possible to kill his own mother? She was one of the three main founders of Itex, along with Jeb and Dr. Gunther-Hagen. She would be more protected then the Queen of England. So it would be practically impossible to kill her, and her co-workers, in order to have the mission aborted and start Itex's collapse.

This mission was something that had been worked on for years. The basic structure had first been thought of five years ago, when the Flock first escaped. It had been predicted that Max and Fang would 'mate', and this was included in the workings. Another four years had then been used to ensure that the mission was waterproof, and that there were no possible cracks. But there was one thing they hadn't included into the equation;

What if the main star of the mission defeated his masters? The main player? The one who had to get the subjects to their destination, to send them to their deaths? What if Phoenix killed Itex?

Would that mean that the Flock would all walk free if Phoenix killed his mother and her friends?

* * *

Pain. That was all Fang could feel. Pain. It seared through his veins as they injected drug after drug, sending him into violent spasms that caused him to be restrained onto a metal table. His vision went white, he could feel knives piercing his arms as he bit through his lip, trying not to scream. He could remember Lucia whispering in his ear _we'll go easy on you for your first time_.

This was going easy?

* * *

I sat by the fire next to Phoenix, who was sharpening his claws and gazing at nothing. Looking at the sun, I guessed I'd been out of it for a few hours, and that it was about eleven now. Iggy held out a charred burger to me and I wordlessly took it; I still hadn't totally forgiven him.

I turned my head to see Nudge and Angel playing with Bree on a blanket. They'd dressed her in a tiny black suit with three quarter sleeves. I could barely hear their conversation; they were whispering because we were still on the 'lie low' plan.

Nudge kept saying things along the lines of "_Auntie Nudge. _Say it after me Bree, _Auntie Nudge and Auntie Angel. _Come on, baby, say it,"

I smiled slightly. I turned where I was sat to see Gazzy curled up by a log, nodding his head to something. I gave hima questioning look, and he held up and iPod." _iPod? When did you get an iPod?" _I mouthed. He grinned mischievously. I decided to let it slide. I probably didn't want to know.

He pointed at the screen and I focused in on the song that he was listening to : Pyromania by Cascada.

I chuckled. How fitting. I gave him a thumbs up and went over to save Bree from her English lesson. I walked over to the trio and gently picked her up, smiling at Nudge and Angel as I did so. I didn't know what Iggy had said to them, but it must have been good, as neither of them had mentioned what happened to me earlier today.

I again went to the edge of the clearing to feed her, my back to the rest of the Flock. Once I was done, I lay her down on my knees so she was looking up at me. Her black hair was going curly now, with the odd ringlet here and there. I don't know who she got that from, as my hair's wavy, and Fang's is dead straight. Probably somewhere waaaaaay back in the family tree . . . It was past her ears now, almost halfway down her neck. It must be something to do with the bird genes that make babies grow up faster, since she looked like a six month old baby, as opposed to the one and a half month old baby she was. That's probably why we all look older than we are.

Three cheers for genetic freaks!

Her eyes were just like Fangs, a dark, dark brown, almost black. If you looked closely, towards the middle, there was a tiny circle of caramel type brown, just like my eye colour. Her facial features were a mix of Fangs and mine. But if you had to choose one of us, she looked much more like Fang than me.

That thought made my eyes water slightly. It was almost like I didn't have a part in her at all. My baby could grow up with no father, and I could be reminded of him everyday just by looking at my daughter.

Oh for God's sake, Max. Snap out of it.

People to see, places to go and all that.

I stood up and turned to the Flock, holding Bree in one arm.

"Okay guys, are we all clear on the plan?" I received nods from all around. "Good. So, we know where we're flying, who's doing what?" More nods. "Great."

I stood there for a second, unsure of what to do. Then I walked over to Iggy and handed him Bree. "You get her first, 'kay?"

Then I turned to the edge of the clearing and began a running take of; leaping into the air and unfurling my wings. I heard the rest of my family take off after me and follow me almost silently through the air. We skimmed the tree's; I could feel a few of my feathers touching the tops of them on each down stroke.

It took under five minutes to arrive outside of the library/Itex thingy place. Let's just say Itex.

We crouched by a section of wall we knew was camera-free.

"Okay, guys. Gazzy, Nudge, you know the drill. Go do your voo-doo kick-ass skills." They nodded and grinned mischievously. They scurried around the corner and Nudge used her magnetic powers to unlock the window, which they then climbed through. I could hear their footsteps as they crept across the dark library (it was Sunday, so the library was closed, duh). There was a click as the wooden doors were opened, and then there was silence.

And silence.

And even more silence.

Then, suddenly, we could all hear, uh, ahem, Gazzy release his _power_. That was our cue. Gazzy came _hurtling _out of the window at, like, a million miles an hour. Iggy handed Bree to him and we all climbed through. I was the last to go, and I quickly said over my shoulder;

"Stay safe Gazzy, head to the clearing." He nodded, and took of quickly. I turned to follow the others. I bolted through the doors and down the corridor on Iggy's heels.

That's when I saw the green gas cloud.

I held my breath and hoped for the best, overtaking the others and barging through the doors. I saw about five whitecoats laying unconscious on the floor, and I ran past them.

Okay, I maybe stood on a few hands.

I kicked the next door down, just as about ten Erasers and five more Whitecoats came swarming out of it. Within seconds they had circled us, and the Erasers were drooling eagerly, one of them was even twitching; trying not to leap on me.

"Down, boy." I snarled. He growled. Before I could blink, my arms were being held behind me, and I was out of the circle completely. I saw the astonished looks on the Flocks faces.

I looked down at the arms curled around my waist. White.

A _whitecoat _had done that?

My confusion must have been evident on my face because one of the Erasers spoke up.

"What, Bird-Girl? Are you so thick you think that an _average_ human could have done that? Geez, how dumb are you? It's obvious to anyone with a brain that everyone here is a hybrid. Can't you tell? The speed? The grace?" At this point, a long, spotted tail came from behind me to stroke the side of my face softly. I froze, and the whitecoat holding me chuckled.

"Come on, did you have you brain cells banged out of you? Get with the programme, Freak." He spat at me.

I looked around me. It seemed like we were stuck.

I repeat : _seemed_.

We have a few tricks up our sleeves, Mister Whitecoat . . .

**Okay, I was gonna have one long chapter of the bringing down this Itex branch, but I didn't want to leave you with out a chapter for so long, so here you are!**

**This is kinda a filler the big stuff happens next =D**

**I got eleven reviews on the last chapter. Lets aim for . . . seven. I like the sound of seven (:**


	35. I Have A Plan

**Diclaimer : I don't own Maximum Ride or her fellow characters. Sniff sniff.**

**Claimer : I do own my plotline, Bree, Phoenix and Lucia :D**

**Okay, i have lots of reviews to reply to! Here we go . . .**

**ErIkA : i haven't heard anything about this . . . i really hope it's not true, that would suck! I'll have a look on the internet too, see if i can find anything **

**Max : Yeah, I'm in school. But i've been at school, and then helping my friend . . . its really complicated, sorry. Buuut, I've only three more days of school left! I dont really know, I guess it's just cuz ive always lived here. I reckon if I lived in the US i'd want to be in England ;) I'm just amazingly awkward :D**

**Shortbandie9 : Okay, i'm sorry for any confusion! I try to not include any specifically English words! You're right about the parking lot thing, but a high street isn't a highway :L:L a high street is a, uuuh, main street? Its the main street in a town/city where most of the shops are. Does that clear it up? Sorry again for any confusion :L**

**Cayology : I'm not entirely sure :S i mean, i've got some more idea's of stuff to do . . . i would think between 10 and 20. But you never know, I might write even more! But I know I'm definitely doing a sequel!**

**Blackened Sky : Good idea! Wait and see . . . . **

**Okay, answering time over!**

**Oh, and check out my profile, i mention the latest story im raving about on there. Atm its **_**All American Girl**_**.**

Chapter 35.

I glanced over at Angel, and she nodded, a grim smile on her small face. While I had been _busy_ with the Eraser and Whitecoat/Leopard thing, she had been searching their minds, trying to see which one of them was in charge. I looked back to the Eraser that had been taunting me just in time to see his eyes un focus slightly.

His looked confused for a second before he turned to the rest of the Erasers and Whitecoats who were still surrounding my Flock.

"Come, we have other urgent matters to deal with." I cringed slightly. This was the best Angel could come up with? Well, I supposed the whole surrounded- by- your- enemies situation didn't really help . . .

The rest of the Whitecoats and Erasers all looked at each other confusedly, before hesitantly letting us all go and walking over to where the mind-controlled Eraser was standing. He motioned to a door with his hand, still staring of into the distance unfocusedly.

I could hear them all murmuring slightly under their breaths, trying to figure out what had made their leader suddenly abandon their mission.

Bingo.

While they were all distracted and heading towards the door, leaving us free, I signalled to the others to slowly creep forwards. Then it began.

Phoenix started it off, he pounced through the air, and I heard a _snick_ as his claws were unsheathed, a second before they were slicing through and Erasers meaty neck.

He screamed in agony, before that scream turned into a gurgle and then cut off. He fell to the floor with a thump.

The others heard this, and suddenly turned around, hissing and growling depending on their species. The leader Eraser suddenly seemed to regain his senses as a huge, bulking eraser knocked Angel to the floor. I ran over to her and picked her up, before tuning just in time to receive a hard punch to my head. I rolled back on my heels, getting rid of some of the impact, but it still hurt. I ducked down before he could deliver another and threw my foot out, catching him just below his knee. He staggered back slightly, and I took the opportunity to jump up and slam my hands over his ears, popping his eardrums. He fell to his knees with a shriek and I grabbed a microscope off of one of the nearby tables and brought it down on his head. He slumped to the floor.

I looked around to see Phoenix stood with about four dead Erasers surrounding him, all with their necks sliced, and his fighting of another. Nudge and Iggy were back to back, fighting and Eraser and a Whitecoat each. Angel was mind controlling another Whitecoat to strangle himself with his tail. Scary kid. But that was all I could see.

So where were the other three erasers and the other two Whitecoats?

Behind me, I found out a second later.

I heard Angel yelp 'Max!' just in time. I automatically braced myself, right before I got a sickening blow to the small of my back. It was almost enough to break my back, but I'd moved forwards with it slightly, so I'd basically saved myself.

I twisted round to see three fists heading towards my face, fast. I ducked and bobbed my head to avoid a sloppy kick, before placing my hands on the floor behind me and pushing my legs out in front of me, knocking a couple of them over. I shot up and stomped on a few heads before they could react, and then dodged a few more punches. I moved to the left slightly and did a few roundhouse kicks, hitting a few of them in the ribs. One of the whitecoats shot out a long tail and tried to wrap it round my ankle. I reached forwards and grabbed it, yanking him towards me. I looped it over his neck and pulled it tight, watching as it twitched, trying to undo itself. His hands scrabbled at his neck as he began to turn a really nasty shade of purple. I ignored him and moved onto the last two, a Whitecoat and an Eraser.

I could hear silence behind me, so I knew that the others had finished off their opponents; I could recognise their heavy breathing.

With no warning at all, the last Eraser lunged at me, teeth bared and claws headed towards my throat. I ducked down, just as the Whitecoat came at me from the side and grabbed my waist. I spun off to the side, tugging out of his arms and giving him a kick as I moved. He staggered backwards into a table and fell to the floor. I heard a member of the Flock run over to deal with him as I started on the Eraser. I'd managed to avoid him while I was dealing with the Whitecoat, and now he had crept closer to me and was swiping clumsily at me with his claws. Geez, these Erasers couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag. I wondered why. Usually Itex was bringing out all these new fancy versions to defeat us with. I wonder where they all were . . .

I snapped out of my thoughts when I felt a claw scrape deep into my cheek. I hissed in pain, feeling the blood starting to run down my face and neck. I lunged at the Eraser, who was cackling manically. I mean, geez, did he learn how to be a _villain _by reading comic books? He was laughing so much, thinking he'd really hurt me, he wasn't even prepared when I leaped at him through the air and snapped his neck.

There was something seriously wrong. These Erasers, it was like they were brain-less. It wasn't normal. I was just wondering what had happened to all of the latest models . . .

I turned to see the rest of the Flock looking at me, waiting for instructions. Phoenix was stood next to the Whitecoats who had fallen into the table carefully avoiding the steadily growing puddle of blood. I felt cold. I was a cold-hearted killer. But . . . it was necessary. But that didn't mean I liked it.

"Iggy, go deal with the five out in the other room. Phoenix, check the other two rooms for any more, but be _careful_. Nudge, check the computers for any information. Angel, you search for any files with me." As soon as I finished, everybody suddenly started bustling about, doing their jobs. I saw Iggy and Phoenix slip out of the room, and Nudge quickly hack into a computer and start pulling up files.

I went over to the nearest drawer with Angel and quickly busted a couple of locks. I pulled the first one open and quickly scanned the files; nothing interesting there, just a bunch of details about a purchase of some microscopes. I looked at the next one, which was full of the same thing. I could hear Angel rustling about beside me, pulling out a few sheets at a time and scanning them like me.

"Max, what's this?" I heard her ask. I turned to see her holding a sheet of paper covered in black print up to my face. I gently took it off her and read it silently. I only picked up on bits of it.

_Most recent models of Erasers taken to headquarters . . .Given older models, just in case . . . Needed to look after new subject in accordance with The Mission . . . Waiting for most successful recombinant species to figure it out . . . Itex Headquarters : Amsterdam, Netherlands._

I stopped breathing. I heard the guys come back into the room silently; there must be no more alive Whitecoats of Erasers in the building.

Woah. _Amsterdam_. That was a long, long way away. That was where they'd taken Fang.

I held out the paper to Iggy, and he read out the important bits. Everyone gasped in understanding. I turned to them all.

"Okay guys, you know what's going to happen now. We have to go over to Amsterdam to get Fang back. I know it's a long way, but I'm sure we'll figure something out. I have a plan. Let's go back and tell Gazzy first." I got a chorus of yeah's.

I headed out of the building and burst out in to the open air, breathing in deep lungful's. I could feel the blood on my cheek drying and stiffening, and I raised my hand to brush most of it off. I didn't have to look behind me to see that the Flock were following me; I could hear them. I took off running and leaped into the air. I flapped quickly, trying not to slip into hyperspeed; I really needed to see Bree.

This time we got to the clearing in under three minutes. I landed and ran over to Gazzy, who looked slightly shocked at my appearance, and took Bree off of him, cuddling her close to my chest. I breathed in her baby smell, and began to explain everything that had happened to Gazzy. He almost fell of his log when I said we were going to Amsterdam.

"But, it's so far away, Max! How are we supposed to fly there?"

"My mom. My mom got us a private jet before, and I'm hoping she can get us one this time. It'd be impossible to fly over the Atlantic, but a jet will get us there quicker. We can get of at London and fly over to Amsterdam. It's much quicker and easier."

"What about all the Erasers? All the recent versions have been taken there, how will we fight them all?" Nudge asked, looking worried.

I didn't know what to say. I mean, how can six mutants and a baby defeat hundreds of evil wolf people? So I used the common lie.

"I have a plan."

**Okay, opinions? I'm not too sure on this chapter . . . :/ ah well, it's written now! :D**

**Ooh, and check out my iPod challenge! It's on my profile, please review!**


	36. Back At Mom's

**Disclaimer : I do not own Maximum Ride and her fellow characters **

**Claimer : I do own Bree, Phoenix and Lucia (eurgh) and my plotline!**

**Whoohoo! Another chapter! Sorry it's been a while!**

Chapter 36.

"You're plane gets here at about six tomorrow morning." My mom said. I stared at her in shock.

"Six tomorrow morning? That's almost a whole day away! Fang could be dead or _worse_ by the time we get to him then! Can't you get it here any quicker?" My hands were clenching and unclenching as I stood before her, twitching with anticipation to get to Fang and save him.

"I'm sorry, Max, but I've already called in enough favours as it is. The CSM hasn't got as many connections as we'd like anymore, so this is already costing the company to hire out. This could cost me my position in the CSM, Max. Some could see it as embezzling funds. I've just got to hope everyone understands my position." She began to look slightly downcast, and I was racked with guilt.

"Look, I'm sorry, Mom. I didn't mean to snap. It's just, I really miss him, y'know?" I looked down at my bare feet, standing on the warm grass. We'd arrived at my Mom's house early this morning after a restless night's sleep. She'd been shocked to see us, especially in out battered state. Ella had already set of for school, so we didn't have to explain anything to her for a few more hours yet.

Now it was just me and my Mom stood in the back yard, the sun on our backs as we discussed the arrangement we had made only moments before. As soon as I'd explained what had happened, my Mom had been on the phone for a hour solid, trying to secure us out flight over to Amsterdam, where Fang was being held captive.

I heard my Mom take a tentative step towards me, before reaching over to wrap me in a tight hug. I breathed in her scent of cookies and tried not to be a big weenie and cry all over her nice blue shirt. It just felt like there was a gaping gap in my chest since Fang had been taken. It hurt so much.

"It's okay, baby. I know how you feel." My mom gripped me tighter. I lifted my head slightly.

"Do you?"

"Yes. Ella's father." I stepped back from her and looked down at her face. **(A/N Max is taller than her Mom. Freaky bird genes and all that . . . ) **"We got together about a year after I last heard from Jeb and the School. I was still distraught after being locked out from your life, so I wasn't thinking properly. Mitchell _seemed_ kind and caring and gentle. But then when we actually moved in together, he got aggressive. He'd be so sweet one moment, then cruel the next. He never actually hurt be badly, just a few bruises here and there. It was just the names that hurt the most." She shuddered lightly. "One day, he just stormed off, screaming he'd had enough. I don't know what triggered it, but he never came back after that. It was a few weeks later I found out I was having Ella. I'll never regret it though."

She hadn't been speaking for long, but by the end of it my Mom seemed slightly out of breath, as though it was an effort to say all this.

"Mom, I'm so sorry." I didn't really know what to say.

"I bet your wondering how that means I know what you feel, but after he left, I just missed him terribly. I knew he was a horrible person, and I should be glad to be rid of him, but after years together, I'd grown attached. It sounds weird, I know, but I got over it after a while. I had Ella to occupy me." She chuckled. I felt slightly better, knowing my Mom knew how I was feeling, even if it was in a different situation.

"I guess I'm just terrified that Bree could grow up without her Dad . . ." My voice faded as I gazed through the windows at Bree, Angel and Gazzy. Bree was lying on the floor while the older two tried to teach her words. I couldn't hear them, but I'm sure they were words such as 'Pony' and 'Sparkle' (Angel) and 'Hotwire' and 'Bomb' (Gazzy).

"Look, don't worry about it. I _know_ you'll find Fang in time. Just try and rest up." She smiled slightly and patted my shoulder before turning and heading inside.

I stood there for a moment, feeling the warmth seeping through my bloody and torn shirt before I turned and followed after her. I went straight into the living room and picked Bree up, sitting on the sofa with her in my arms. I could hear Iggy in the kitchen cooking up a storm, and I caught a whiff of something like cinnamon. Mmnnn.

Bree seemed to pick it up too, as she suddenly started to whimper. I looked down at her, her big brown eyes filling with tears. She was such a cute baby. I gave her my finger and she began to suckle on it, so I left the room briefly to feed her. I returned just in time to see my Mom enter the room, covered in a layer of something that looked like flour.

"Iggy?" I questioned. She nodded and proceeded up the stairs. I heard the shower running a few moments later. I looked around the room to see Nudge curled up on the armchair reading some fashion magazine and Gazzy and Angel playing some form of hangman on the floor. I could hear Gazzy protesting that Angel kept reading his mind. I smiled slightly and continued on into the kitchen.

The first thing I saw was the broken eggs on the floor. I frowned and looked for Iggy. He was standing by the counter, a mixture of spices and other ingredients covering him. I laughed slightly, and he looked up at me.

"And what might you be laughing at?" He said, a melodramatic expression on his face.

"Oh, nothing, just the fact that you appear to be coated in a strange concoction of food substances." I laughed again.

Iggy looked down at himself in mock amazement. I gave him a look, and he just smiled at me before turning back to his food. I went over and stood next to him. I couldn't make out what I was staring at though. The joys of being practically disabled when it comes to cooking.

"Uuh, what is it?" I asked. Iggy looked at me like I'd grown a second head.

"What is it? It's obviously a batch of cinnamon rolls! Anyone with half a brain can see that!" He looked mock-offended. I rolled my eyes. It just looked like a blob of doughy stuff to me. I felt Bree make some cute noises and I looked down at her. She was sniffing the air and smiling slightly.

Iggy leaned down so he was more level with her. "Hello pretty baby! Do you like the smell of my delicious cooking?" He looked up at me. "Can I hold her?" I nodded, smiling slightly. He lifted her out of my arms. She giggled slightly; she loved Iggy.

"You love my cooking, don't you? Maybe when you're older I can teach you to cook some of it. Would you like that? Just so long as you're a better cook than your Momma, then I won't be able to teach you. The kitchen would probably catch on fire. I just hope you take after your daddy." I slapped him on the arm slightly.

"I'll leave her in your capable hands then." I turned to walk out of the room.

"But, what about my cooking, Max?"

"Welcome to the world of parenthood, Iggy."

I went into the living room to see that Nudge had joined in with Gazzy and Angel's game of hangman, and they were all fighting over the spelling of 'terrible'. I shook my head in fake depair and chuckled.

"It's t-e-r-r-i-b-l-e guys. Didn't you learn anything when you went to school?" They all rolled their eyes simultaneously. Creepy.

I heard Iggy muttering to Bree in the kitchen, probably about how I'd dumped her with him while he was in his sacred kitchen. Suddenly I heard him shriek slightly, before calling out to me.

"Max, it's Bree, she's, uh, she's, done _something_, and it stinks, and it's near my cooking, and it might contaminate it, and please take her, and my _food_-"

I sighed and stalked back into the kitchen to see Iggy holding Bree away from the food, his nose wrinkled. "I feel sorry for your future wife, Iggy." He rolled his eyes.

I took my daughter from him and smiled as he exhaled in relief.

It was gonna be an interesting day.

**Okay guys, this was a filler. What do you think should happen next chapter? I want seven reviews pleeease :D**

**I will love you all forever **


	37. Plane

**Disclaimer : I don't own Maximum Ride. If I did, Fang would be living with me.**

**Claimer : You know all that . . . **

**Okay guys, I've worked out the ENTIRE plotline for the rest of this story and its sequel. Yay :D I'm so exited . . . does that make me sad?**

**And to lonewolfrox624 : you gave me 9 reviews! That officially makes you awesome :D ****and thanks to all who reviewed!**

Chapter 37.

I was woken up at the wonderful time of _four in the freaking morning_ by a shriek that rang through the house. I sat bolt upright in my bed, automatically looking over and into Bree's cot. But she wasn't the one screaming, she was just stirring slightly, coming back into sight, blinking with a confused expression. I swung my legs out of the bed I was sharing with Ella and ran out into the corridor.

It sounded like the scream had come from the upstairs bathroom, so I hurtled down the narrow corridor and barged through the door. Only to see, not a bunch of Erasers holding one of the Flock hostage, but Nudge stood in front the mirror, staring intently at her chin with a horrified expression. As soon as I burst through the door, she turned to me, tears in her eyes.

"Max! I have a pimple!"

I could have died right there and then.

"A pimple? Seriously, Nudge? A _pimple _caused you to scream at _four_ in the morning and wake up half of America?" I asked incredulously. She just nodded.

"But, Max, it's huge and horrible! What's happening to me? Have I got some sort of disease? An illness? Am I going to die? I sure hope not, that would suck, I mean, I would miss out on so many things, like bungee jumping. I've always wanted to go bungee jumping. It just looks so awesome, don't ya think, Max? I think it does. We should do it. I mean, after we've got Fang obviously, but soon after. Where do you think the nearest bungee place is?"

I just stood there with my mouth scraping the floor. Trust Nudge to start talking about a pimple and end up on bungee jumping . . .

"Nudge. Ears. Bleeding." She just grinned at me. That was when Iggy walked in.

"Would somebody please enlighten me why I am up at this unearthly hour?" I rolled my eyes.

"I have a pimple on my chin, Iggy!" Nudge turned to him, looking like the sun was about to crash into the world and we were all going to explode into big fiery bally of fieryness.

He just laughed at her expression. I could see Nudges temper brewing. This would be . . . interesting.

"What the hell Iggy." Her eyes were narrowed, but Iggy just kept on sniggering to himself.

"It's just that you're getting so worked up over a stupid pimple, Nudge. I mean, everyone gets them at some point. There's really no need to be such a drama queen." He was leaning against the counter now, his arms crossed, still chuckling quietly. I could hear footsteps in the corridor, and I knew that the commotion had roused everyone else in the house.

"Oh whatever Iggy. At least I don't have hair growing all over my face." She stormed past him, knocking him against the wall as she ran to her room, leaving him standing before the mirror inspecting the fine reddish-blonde hair beginning to grow on his face with a gleeful expression.

Great, let's just add some more hormonal teenagers in the mix . . .

I left him to it, shaking my head as I walked out into the hallway. The rest of the Flock were standing in the hallway. As soon as I walked out, they all started smirking and giggling quietly, remembering when me and Fang were like that. What a delightful period of my life.

Not.

I ignored them and turned to Phoenix who was standing with a confused expression on his face, obviously not understanding what was going on.

"Just don't ask." I told him, grinning at the whole situation. He nodded, smiling slightly in return. I walked past him to Ella, who was holding a fidgety Bree, looking worried. I reached over and took her from her arms, watching as she seemed to sag with relief.

"Geez, Ella, she isn't made of diamonds, you don't have to hold her like you're afraid of breaking her." She just nodded. Since she'd arrived home from school the previous day and heard all out news, she'd kind of avoided holding Bree, as if she was scared of touching her. I could see my mom slowly climbing the stairs at the other end of the hallway, probably to see what the noise was.

"Okay, guys, since we're all up now," pointed glance at Nudge's door "we might as well get ready. The plane leaves in two hours, and it'll be better to be ready early that miss it. We can sleep on the way over." They all nodded at my words and went off to their respective rooms; my mom lived in a four bedroom house, and she had one room, Gazzy, Iggy and Phoenix had one, Me, Ella and Bree had one while Nudge and Angel had the other.

My mom came up to me once everyone had gone, coming to stand next to me. The only sounds where the shuffling of everyone else in their rooms and Bree's baby noises. She was the first to break the silence.

"Do I want to know?" She asked. One side of her mouth was drawn up in a lopsided grin.

"No. Definitely not, Mom." She nodded, and reached out her arms hesitantly. "Mom, you just have to ask. I'm not going to say no, you're her Grandma." I smiled, handing Bree over.

Mom took her delicately and cradled her close to her face, giving her a finger for Bree to hold on to. She just looked so amazed by Bree.

"She looks like Fang so much, he's definitely her father." She looked up at me, smiling again.

"Of course he's her father, why, who did you think it was?" My guard was up, what, did she think I was sleeping around like a slut?

"No, no, of course not, Max. I was just commenting." I calmed down. It seemed I got very . . . nettled when it came to Fang and our _situation_.

She handed Bree back to me. "I'll let you get ready now." And she turned and headed down the stairs again, leaving me and my baby alone in the hallway.

* * *

Within an hour and a half, we were boarding the plane. It had taken an hour before we realised Nudge had tried to pack all of her clothes as well as half of Ella's, along with about three boxes of make-up and some pink hair dye. Where did she get most of this stuff? Pshh, don't ask me, probably where Gazzy and Iggy got all their bombs and such.

So, once we'd sorted that dilemma out, we'd tried to get everyone in the car. When we realised that 8 people, six of which were abnormally tall bird kids, and a baby, would _not_ fit into a five seater car.

Yeah, we kinda broke a few laws that day. Believe me, it is anything but fun to be sat Iggy, holding a baby, with the worst half of Gazzy laid across my legs. Anything. But. Fun.

Then, we were half way to where we were meeting the jet when Angel had an urge to write a postcard to Total, who was still on his extended honeymoon in France. Yeah, try dealing with a seven year old having a tantrum in said cramped car.

So we eventually made it to the jet. I'm, telling you, it was _sweet._ All cushy interior and all that stuff. Our backpacks were loaded into the overhead compartments, and we all got buckled in. Angel was waving to my mom through the window, exited to be on a plane again. I could already hear Phoenix, Gazzy and Nudge arguing over which game they should play first. Iggy sat down next to me, looking nervous. All of us older ones were the worst in planes and such, small places were a big no no.

I could just see Ella having a heated conversation with my mom before storming out of my vision. I was confused, I'd never seen the two of them having an argument before. I made a mental note to call my mom about it when we were up in the air.

I heard the jet door open and close, and a few seconds later the engines started. I did a quick wave out the window to my mom, and sat back in my seat, my eyes closed, just wishing this flight was over already. The usual announcements were said, yada yada yada, and soon we were rocketing down the runway and up into the air. I was looking over Iggy to try and see out the window, but he was hogging it all himself, so I took Bree out of the seat she was in and tried to keep her entertained.

And that was when Ella tapped me on the shoulder.

* * *

Fang fell onto the cold white floor as a whitecoat pushed him into his 'room'. He was so starved, so exhausted; he couldn't do a thing but lay there unmoving. He hadn't been taken for long, but being without food and having to endure the Experiments . . .

He heard the door open slowly, gliding across the tiles. He was roughly grabbed by his armpits and lain down on his back on the floor. He forced his eyes to open and saw Lucia crouching down next to him, a smug smile on her lipsticked mouth. He kept his expression blank, like he always did when possible. Obviously, it was kind of hard to keep emotionless when you're being tasered and branded and whipped and injected with toxins at the same time.

Lucia leant down and whispered in his ear. Fang couldn't help his eyes widening. He couldn't find the energy to protest, however, he was too drained. She couldn't do that. That was sick, that was _wrong_ on so many levels. Surely no sane human being could do that . . .

That was when she drew out the syringe and plunged it into his arm. He tried with all his might to shuffle away from her, but he didn't have the energy to go more than a centimetre. Lucia noticed his efforts and tied him to the ground with some rope she produced out of nowhere; attaching it to a few hooks embedded in the tiles. Well, at least that cleared up what they were for.

That was when Lucia began.

_Max, I'm so so sorry._

**Okaaay, opinions? :D**


	38. Eventful, much?

**So, remember me? Yeah, i know i've been gone so long they're probably teaching about me in history class, but im sorry!**

**I went to the states for like half an age (omg i love twinkies . . .) then i had jet-lag then i had man-flu then i had homework . . .**

**You get the picture.**

**But you can all thank b4k4-r3dux for making me get my ass into gear and writing this! Three cheers! Yaaaaay . . . :D**

**Disclaimer : Me no own-y . . . :'(**

Chapter 38.

I handed Bree to Iggy. I didn't want to accidentally throw her or something in my anger.

"Ella. Before I _smash your head into a wall_, I suggest you explain what the hell you are doing on this jet without Mom. Now." I tried to regulate my breathing, I was _furious_.

Ella looked nervous. Damn right she should be. "Well, I wanted to come with you, because I haven't seen Fang in so long, and I really wanted to help. And I know I wouldn't be able to sit still at home, knowing what you were doing, I mean, I won't be a nuisance, I can look after Bree and stuff, and I won't get in the way. I mean," She avoided my eyes. "I said this to Mom, and we argued, she was saying I'd be in the way, but I mean, I wouldn't though, would I Max?" She released the breath she'd been holding; she'd managed to cram all that into less than fifteen seconds. Have a merit.

I was breathing slowly, _in, out, in, out_. "Ella." I closed my eyes. "Do you realise what kind of position this puts me in? Now, apart from having to look after the Flock, I have to take care of you too. Yes, you could look after Bree, but then I'd be so busy worrying about my sister and my baby that I wouldn't be able to concentrate. Now I have double the responsibility. Before, I just had my family to worry about, now I have you too. I'm not saying you're not my family, but what if you get killed? What would Mom do then? I don't think you realise how dangerous this is, Ella."

I opened my eyes to see Ella standing in the aisle, her arms folded over her skinny chest, lower lip quivering slightly. The only noise was the humming or the engine and Bree's tiny baby sounds.

"Just go and sit down, Ella." I looked out of the window, listening to her make her way to the back of the plane silently, breathing raggedly. I knew I was being harsh on her but she needed to know the truth. Iggy was still playing with Bree, bouncing her on his knee as she squealed. My arms suddenly felt empty without her and I took her back. Iggy looked at me questionably.

I sighed. "Go sit next to Ella, she looks like she could to with some company." I looked out of the window as he stood up and left.

"Hey, baby. How ya doin'?" I tickled Bree's tummy as she lay in my lap, looking up at me with her dark brown eyes. "We're going to go get you daddy, hey? It's that cool! You'll get to see your daddy again . . ." I trailed off. Would she ever see Fang again?

"Dada." The whole plane seemed to freeze. I stared at my daughter, who was examining her foot with great interest, as if she hadn't just spoken her first word.

"Did she just say what I think she said?" I heard Phoenix say from the front of the plane. I could see him craning his head to try and see us, a confused expression on his face.

"I . . . I don't know." I looked down at Bree again. She was still holding onto her foot, holding it up in the air. "Did you say 'daddy'?"

She gave a tiny baby smile, before looking up at me again. "Dada." Her voice sounded out of place saying that, I was so used to her random little sounds, and the occasional cry.

"Like, ZOMG! That's her first word, right? That's so cool! I mean, it was 'dada', so that means daddy right? So she means Fang! That's just awesome! Like, even though he's not here, he was her first word! Haha, I bet your really jealous, max. I would be. I want all of my kids to say Mommy first. Not that I'm having any kids soon, but still. That's so cool!" Three guesses who that was.

But Nudge's little speech had broken the silence, and everyone began to chatter quietly again, the main topic of conversation being Bree's first word.

It made me think, how much had we been talking to Bree about Fang? Calling him daddy? I was distracted, however by the pilots intercom sounding throughout the cabin.

_We have thirteen hours of flight left until we land at Rotterdam._

That was when Angel and Gazzy started screaming at each other. Apparently, Angel had been cheating at some sort of card game.

Yay.

* * *

Fang lay on the cold tile floor, staring at the boring white ceiling. He couldn't move, he could barely breathe. He was exhausted; he could feel his heartbeat slowing down slightly. Grief coursed through him like adrenaline. He didn't know how much longer he could go on for. His vision began to fade and flicker, until it blanked out entirely.

He was left in darkness.

* * *

Believe me, thirteen hours on a jet can _drag._

Despite the fact that the first hour was spent entertaining Bree, marvelling at her newfound word, once she'd gone to sleep there really wasn't much for me to do.

Angel, Gazzy, Nudge and Phoenix had taken a table and spent the flight playing various card games relatively peacefully. If any kind of scuffle broke out, he'd handle it with ease before I could even find the energy to stand; I was exhausted for some reason. It made me wonder if he'd worked with kids before; he handled them really well.

Iggy was sat at the back of the plane with Ella for almost the whole journey, speaking in a hushed tone. At one point, when I was doing a visual check of the plane, I could have sworn I saw them holding hands. I didn't know whether to feel angry or happy. I decided to worry about it later.

But I guess Phoenix's vision added some in-flight entertainment.

We'd been flying for almost twelve hours, and almost everyone was asleep, when there was a loud _thud_ as Phoenix fell out of his chair and into the aisle. The whole Flock woke up at the noise, even Bree, who suddenly popped into existence in my arms and began to wail. I jumped up and hurriedly placed her into Nudges waiting arms as I leaped to pin Phoenix down.

I managed to get his legs, but his arms were still flailing around dangerously until Iggy practically fell into the aisle to hold his arms down. His fir lasted for about fifteen minutes, much more than his last one. For a moment I worried if he would wake up, but eventually his flailing around stopped and he blinked up at us.

"Don't worry guys, I just saw something . . . put it like this, don't go in any rooms marked 'Experimenting'." He grinned slightly, not meeting any of our eyes. I was confused, why was he avoiding my gaze?

I let it drop, however, as he tried to sit up and get back into his seat.

And here we were.

After we'd gotten off of the plane at some private airport in Rotterdam, we'd flown over to Amsterdam, using the darkness to cover us from view. It was about five in the morning. Iggy had been carrying Ella. I wasn't entirely happy about that . . .

And now we were circling around the outskirts of Amsterdam, looking for a giant fluorescent billboard saying 'Hey, Flock! Itex is right here! '

Just kidding.

Although that would be nice.

I was scanning the dark ground, trying to see, I don't know. A big, white building? A house? A secret underground lair?

That was when Angel piped up. "Max! I can hear Fang! Sort of . . . I can _feel _him, but he's not thinking any thoughts . . ." She trailed of, looking at me uncertainly.

"Where is he?" I almost snapped. She pointed directly beneath us. I squinted, and saw something that looked faintly like a . . . trapdoor? No way, that's just way to cliché, the only way to get into a soul-sucking evil corporation being through a mysterious trapdoor.

"Iggy, give me Ella." I flew over to them, ignoring Ella's protests. She took Bree, and I took her, staggering under her weight.

"Max, wha-?" Iggy started to protest, but I cut him off.

"I'm taking them somewhere safe. Ella can look after Bree. I can fly faster. Stay here." With that I kicked into super speed, leaving the rest of my family hovering in the darkness.

After about a minute I began angling downwards sharply, Ella was _heavy!_ I landed at a small clump of tree's; there were no hills at all to hide them behind, Holland was just so _flat_ **(so true!)**.

I set them down, and made sure they had somewhere to stay for a few hours. I gave Ella some supplies she'd need for Bree, and a hug for the pair of them.

"Ella, stay here, okay? Try and stay as quiet as possible, try not to move, just try and be totally inconspicuous, 'kay?" She nodded, eyes wide. I looked like where she was had finally dawned on her. Good.

I bent down to Bree. "I'm going to go get your daddy, baby. Isn't that awesome! You stay here with your Auntie Ella like a good girl, okay?" I kissed her little forehead, smiling as she gurgled happily and squealed 'Dada!'. On the inside though, I was shaking with nerves. Not that I'd let anyone know it.

I turned to walk away, even though it killed me inside when I heard Bree start to whimper. I did a running take off and was in the air within seconds.

I flew at around 300 mph back to my flock, not wanting to dwell on my sister and my baby alone in a cold wood. I got up to them, almost skidding in the air, if that's possible.

"Let's hit it, guys." We all tilted our wings and began to head down, when I heard Nudge shriek. We all turned to face her in time to see her eyes close, and black figure behind her, outline barely visible. We all did 360's so fast we were blurs in the night, only to see us surrounded.

_How had we not heard them?_

I didn't have time to think of an answer before I felt a sharp pain in my neck, and it all went black.

* * *

"Dang, what happened to him?"

"I dunno, but it's bad. We'd better start trying to patch him up before Max wakes up, she'll flip."

"Yeah, here," There was a ripping noise. "use this for that one there, it looks the worst. Is there any water in here we could use?"

"Yeah, here. There's not much though, and its warm."

"It'll do. But I'll have to use all of it, flush some of these out, there's dirt in them. God knows what they've been doing to him here. I'm just glad he's passed out."

"Why are you glad he's passed out, Iggy?"

"Well, would you want to be awake and feeling all of these?"

"No."

I blinked, opening my eyes slowly to the bright white light. I'd been hearing the voices for a while, but I'd only just got enough energy to actually wake up fully.

Shielding my eyes, I sat up, my head spinning slightly.

That's when I smelt it. The antiseptic. I bolted upright, backing into the corner of the room on instinct.

Then I actually bothered to look round. I was in a small room, maybe five by five feet. I was in one corner, next to a small bench attached to the ground, and in the opposite corner, was my Flock. They all seemed to be huddled around something, making a sort of lopsided circle. I could see Iggy holding a small bowl of water, and Gazzy holding some strips of t-shirt, folding some of them into thick squares. I wondered what he was using them for. Then I noticed that Phoenix was missing. I barely had time to wonder about him though.

They were all looking at me with apprehensive expressions. Especially Ella.

_Ella?_

So where was Bree?

Ella say my eyes locked on her and her eyes started to water slightly. I ignored that and rushed forwards towards her, taking about three strides 'till I was standing next to her, peering inside the circle.

And what I saw took my breath away.

And not in a good way.

Fang was lying in the centre of the circle, unconscious. His black clothes were ripped, tattered and sweaty. His jeans were hanging off of his hips; he looked almost anorexic. His arms were covered in bruises, the kind of bruises you get from needles being forced into your tense muscle. There were burns and welts and oozing wounds covering his skin, there was barely a patch of his body untouched. His cheekbones were casting long shadows on his face, making him look like death. I could see almost every bone in his body poking against his skin.

There was silence as the Flock gauged my reaction. I could feel their gazes on my face, but I ignored them as I stared at the boy I loved. I pushed past them and fell onto my knees beside him. His breathing was quiet and ragged, his eyes closed. I hoped he wasn't hurting, wherever he was. I could feel a solitary tear roll down my cheek silently, looking at how they'd ruined him, destroyed him.

Then Ella spoke up.

"Max."

I looked over at her, my expression blank. All I could think of was Fang, how broken he was, lying on the floor next to me.

"I'm so sorry." There were tears flowing down her cheeks, and her shoulders were shaking slightly. I noticed Iggy holding her hand loosely, his thumb stroking the back of it lightly.

Why would she be sorry? It wasn't her fault that Fang had been tortured like this. If it was anyone's fault, it was mine. I had o idea why she was apologizing until I noticed an emptiness in my arms. I looked down, expecting to see Bree there. But she wasn't.

I couldn't hear her in the room. And Ella was here. So that meant they'd been taken. But what had happened to Bree?

"Where's Bree, Ella?" I asked, my voice tiny and raspy, full of unshed tears.

"I don't know," She whispered. My heart broke. "They took us both, but only I was put in here. They took Bree somewhere else. And Phoenix. We haven't seen him since we were all taken." I didn't care about Phoenix, all I could think was that Itex had my baby. _Jeb _had my baby.

I reached down blindly beside me and found Fangs hand. I bent my head down. It felt like my life was falling apart.

I had a healthy daughter, we were on the verge of destroying Itex and we almost had Fang back. Now we were all in the clutched of the most evil people in the world. And I had no idea where mine and Fang's baby was.

My mind was starting to shut down, to block out this pain, when the door opened and a pair of black high heels clicked across the tiles towards us.

**Opinions? Review! **


	39. Escapes and Explanations

**Disclaimer : I do not own blah blah blah . . .**

**So. Miss me?**

**You get again have to thank my American friend b4k4 r3dux :D for encouraging to make me write this chapter.**

**Yes, i needed encouragement because I only got THREE reviews! I mean, thanks to you guys who did, but i mean come on! Some times I've gotten like twelve!**

**Rant over. Chapter time . . .**

Chapter 39 (wow thats almost 40 *_*)

My eyes flicked up, my body tense and instantly on alert. Four years on the run does that to you, y'know.

I took in a pair of spiky black heels, a tailored skirt, and expensive looking jacket, and a very in-your-face blue shirt. But what stood out to me the most about this mystery woman was her face.

She had thick, wavy, dark brown hair that was pulled back into a high, sleek ponytail. Her eyes were wide, exited, a shimmering golden colour. Looking at her gave me a freaky sense of déjà vu. I looked at her for a few seconds, until it clicked. She looked almost exactly like Phoenix.

The reason I realised this?

The little traitor was standing right behind her.

I almost instantly backed into the nearest corner, dragging Fang with me, despite Iggy exclamations. I stared up at the pair, my eyes blazing, crouched in a position where I could leap up and fight if needed. My wings were slightly open, straining against the worn fabric of my tee. The rest of the Flock moved around me, and I ushered them behind me to take care of Fang.

I stayed in my crouched position low to the floor and stared up at them, waiting for some kind of explanation. I noticed Phoenix was hanging by the now-closed door, bolting it slowly with a shaky hand. He kept alternating from pleading glances to me and terrified glances at his mother. I ignored him.

"Well?" I snarled at the woman. I wasn't in the mood for waiting.

She just seemed to jump ever so slightly at my voice, and then smirk. "Well, Max. You're here for a very important reason. We-"

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard this all before. Cut the crap and _tell me why the hell we are here._" Yeah, so I don't have the most patience in the world. So shoot me.

She looked slightly taken aback, but carried on nevertheless. "You're here because we are going to experiment on you and your whole Flock in order to gain insight into how you hybrids work. This will help us in our plans. We, Itexicon, aim to produce a Product that enabled all infants to be born with some kind of animal DNA. Whether it be avian, lupine, or anything else, it will enable the child to survive the apocalypse. Your daughter, Max, is a very useful tool to us. Your child can help us analyse how hybrids reproduce. We can study if she is as successful as you, which means the Product we aim to create would be doubly successful. Of course, we want you to create more offspring for us to study." She chuckled lightly as I bristled with anger at her words.

"I expect you're wondering why all this is coming about, aren't you, Max? Why do we need to study you and your family? What is the apocalypse? It's quite simple, my dear. Our version of the apocalypse, aptly named the Re-Generation, for reasons I am about to reveal, is where we select people with specific traits, whether that be strength, intelligence, whatever, and we produce offspring from these people including the Product, to create Super-Humans. Then, once they had reached an acceptable age, we would instigate something similar to the by-half plan. Except this time, the only surviving creatures would be our specially created hybrids. Creating a better, cleaner, safer world. We can start over. Don't you see, Max? You're going to help save this world. _This _is your destiny. This is how you will help." She smiled sweetly at me.

I just stared at her. She had to be lying, there was no way my destiny was _this_. She was still standing in front of Phoenix, her arms lightly crossed, smiling down at me.

I leaped at her.

I almost flew through the air, my arms outstretched and attempted to wrap my hands around her scrawny neck. I could hear Phoenix shouting something at me but I wasn't listening.

The woman screamed, all high pitched and shrilly, in my ear, and I felt a slight tingling around my wrist, and my eyes flicked down to see a chunky black bracelet with a tiny red light flashing on it. My eyes widened just before I felt a stinging sensation. My eyes rolled up in my head before it all went black.

* * *

Ugh.

My head was _killing _me.

I blinked slowly against the light, to see Angel's small face hovering over mine expectantly. As soon as my eyes opened, she turned her head to whisper excitedly '_she's awake!'._

I took the opportunity to push myself up from the tiled floor, my head spinning. The Flock were once again huddled in the corner.

"Man, what happened?" I asked no-one in particular.

Iggy replied. "Once you started attacking that woman like a crazy banshee , your wrist thing sort of beeped and you just fell to the floor. It was kinda creepy. Then the woman and Phoenix almost ran out of the room. That was about three hours ago."

"_Three hours?" _I couldn't believe I'd been out that long; we needed to plan out escape. "Guys, we need to figure out how to escape. Fang needs help."

"I'm right here." Said a croaky voice.

"Fang?" I scrambled up and shot across the room, the Flock moving out of the way to let me through. Fang was lying shirtless on the ground, his head propped up by a rolled up piece of material. He had another strip of black fabric wrapped across his chest, presumably covering up some sort of welt. With no shirt on, the fact that he was severely underfed was even more noticeable, his belt was on the smallest catch and his jeans were still too large, his ribs were visible, and his skin was dull and flaky.

I crouched next to him and stroked his face gently, staring into his eyes. "How are you feeling?" he just did a weird sort of shrug thing, wincing as he did so.

"Stop moving, you idiot." I scolded him, but smiling as I did so, holding his hands in mine. He closed his eyes, a faint smile on his face, too. I looked up at Iggy.

"Have we got a plan yet?" he nodded slightly, holding up a suspicious looking package wrapped in tin-foil.

"Do I even want to know how you managed to make that in here?"

"No. Definitely not." He and Gazzy shared a glance, sniggering. I rolled my eyes.

"Right. So what do we have? I mean, how are we gonna get out? I think we cou-"

I was cut of my the door opening yet again, and Phoenix stepped into the room, looking uncertain and afraid. Damn right he should be.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I almost hissed at him. He visible flinched.

"I'm here to help get you out of here."

"Yeah, like I'm gonna believe that. Pull the other one." I turned my head away slightly. I couldn't believe he'd betray us. I thought he was one of us.

"Please, Max, just listen to me. Yes, Lucia is my mother." I assumed that Lucia was the woman from before. "I was raised here, at the headquarters. My mother is one of the three main founders of Itex, with Jeb and Dr. Gunther-Hagen. She had me as part of this research, and she experimented on me and tortured me like what happened to you. When they found out Fang had left, they made sure I was at the next school he was going to so he'd pick me up. I kinda forgot about what they'd told me after that. I just felt like I belonged for once in my life. My mother had told me to lead you to them so they could continue with their research. I didn't actually do anything; you did it yourself. But if you didn't I'd of had to bring you here eventually or they'd have hunted me down and killed me. I know that's selfish, but I'm sure that you'd do the same. And now I was to get you out. I know where Bree is."

My head snapped back to him on that one, before instantly going back to Fang. His eyes seemed wide at the revelation that Bree was missing, but seeing my questioning gaze, he nodded, meaning we should go with Phoenix.

"Okay, we'll go with you. Show us the way." We all stood up instantly. I helped Fang up, hooking his arm around my neck easily due to his height. Grumble.

He led us through various small, white passage ways and corridors. I noticed that each security camera I saw had black tape over the lens. _I guess he really isn't that much of a traitor after all. _I thought. After about ten minutes of solid walking, fang was exhausted, Gazzy was almost bouncing of the walls and Phoenix was sweating bullets. He suddenly stopped outside a huge metal door. It looked very fancy-schmancy.

Phoenix tapped in a very long code and pushed the door open with a _psshhh_.

The room was empty save for a metal crib in the centre, surrounded by a bazillion machines all beeping and screeching.

I half dragged Fang forwards and peered inside to see Bree sleeping, stirring slightly at our sounds. She blinked sleepily, her eyes focusing on Fang immediately, who was looking down at her with a blinding smile.

"Dada!" She squealed happily, and Fang looked like he was about to cry from happiness, which, coming from Mr. Silent and Emo, was a lot. I smiled at him quickly, before manoeuvring from under his weight to pick her up. We turned, and I put her in Iggy's outstretched arms.

Within seconds, we were off again, flitting through various corridors after Phoenix. I didn't know about the others, but I was getting shifty. Surely someone had noticed that their main experiments had all escaped? That was when we suddenly burst through a pair of giant double doors into the sunset. I seemed like the Itex headquarters started underground and slowly made their way up to the surface.

We all started our running take-offs when I heard a shriek from behind me.

I turned just in time to see Lucia running after us with a swarm of Erasers behind her. Thankfully these ones were not winged.

Lucia suddenly stopped still, screaming. "Your own mother Phoenix! How dare you disobey me! And you, Max, your own Aunt! How can you do this? It's for the good of the Earth!"

We'd all stopped now, facing each other. We were in a triangle formation, me and Fang at the front. I gave a signal behind me for and up and away in three.

"Yes, Max. Come back inside. You know it's for the best."

_One._

"And I'm sorry that your mother never told you about me. I guess we've had some . . . family history."

_Two._

She smiled at me, actually thinking I wanted to go back into that hellhole

_Three._

In unison, we all leaped into the air, spreading our wings. I was still half holding Fang, which made it very awkward.

The Erasers rushed forwards as Lucia screamed her head off, her face red. I looked to Iggy and nodded my head. Using the arm that wasn't holding Bree he took the bomb out of his pocket and flicked the switch.

"Aim it at her." Phoenix whispered. We all looked at him. He simply nodded and looked away. Iggy let the bomb fall, directly where Lucia and the Erasers were.

_Boom._

We were a long way up, but the shockwaves from the explosion even sent us spinning through the air. We all looked down at the flaming fireball that was Itexicon headquarters.

"Goodbye." I said, and we all turned and flew into the sunset.

**Okay. I don't really like this. Oh well, next one should be better :D**

**I would be extremely happy with six reviews **

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**Review!**


	40. Revelations

**Disclaimer : I do not own blah blah blah.**

**Well.**

**THANKYOU!**

**The reviews i got were so great, it made me so happy **

**And i know the last chapter was a little bit rushed, i was trying to get it finished ****if i do it again, tell me **

**Oh, and it seems like the Red Sox are pretty popular ****personally I like the Phillies! Anyone else?**

**Apologies for the lateness – homeworks a bitch. Thank b4k4 r3dux again! **

Chapter 40.

"Mom, these are amazing."

At least, that's what I had intended to say, but it came out something like 'mthsmzin', because I'd just bitten down on one of my mom's delicious chocolate chip cookies.

Currently, we were all sat on boxes in my mom's living room, tucking into her circles of heaven. As fast as we could, we'd flown back to our jet, which had stayed at Amsterdam. We'd spent the majority of the journey back to Arizona tending to Fang, who was still practically dead on his feet, and sleeping the rest. Then we ended up on my mom's doorstep, dead on out feet, only to see her and a team of removals men shifting boxes around.

Once I'd been calmed down and reassured that no, my mom was not planning on packing up and running away, we all sat down on the boxes full of my mom's possessions in the living room and tucked in.

It turned out that as soon as we'd left, Mom had realised Ella had gone with us, and just how close we really were. She yanked a few strings and managed to secure a six bedroom house for the nine of us, as well as selling her own house to the CSM, who would use it as an employee base. This new house was about an hour away, still in Arizona, and we were heading there in an hour. At the moment Fang was stretched out on a couple of extra large boxes, sleeping. He was actually snoring a little bit, and if he wasn't totally beat up I'd have teased him mercilessly about it.

Ella was sat on the floor a little bit away from us, sulking. She'd had the biggest yelling match with Mom about 5.3 seconds after we'd walked through the door, and there was still a lot of tension hanging in the air.

I looked down at Bree, who was currently sleeping in my arms. Her black hair was past her ears now; it seemed to be growing exceptionally fast. She was wearing a little baby-gro my mom had bought for her. It was a size 6-12 months. I mean, Bree was a skinny baby, and these clothes fit her snugly, even though she was barely two months old. A though suddenly struck me.

"Mom, do you know if we grew really fast when we were younger? I mean, I was just thinking about how Bree's already in big baby clothes, and I was worried that she'd just keep on growing this quickly . . . She'd already said her first word. I'm worried about her." I looked up at my mom, who was smiling casually at me.

"Max, I wouldn't worry. You look about three years older than you actually are, all of you do, so I wouldn't be surprised if you'd all grown as quickly as Bree when you were babies. Don't stress yourself out about this. When birds are babies, they grow very quickly as well. It makes sense that you all would too." She smiled again.

I nodded my thanks at her, my relief showing on my face. I'd been worried that Bree would continue to grow quicker than us, ultimately resulting in a premature death. I felt much better now I knew that wouldn't happen. In her sleep, Bree snuggled closer to my chest and smiled a tiny smile, her fists clenching and unclenching. I hugged her tighter to me. I loved her so much.

"Max?" I looked over to see the Gasman sat on a box too, cookie crumbs covering his face, and a smear of chocolate on is lip. He looked so cute; too cute to be battling evil every other day.

"Yeah, Gazzy?" I smiled at him. Gee, I was doing a lot of smiling. He sort of nodded his head at Bree.

"Can I hold her?"

"Sure, Gazzy." I leaned over and handed him my baby, watching at he took her in his arms with ease. The look on his face when she stirred and gave him a small smile was mind blowing.

I stood up and went to sit beside fang's boxes, holding his limp, scratched hand in my own. I took a look around the room, seeing my whole family content and happy, more or less in one peace. I smiled. I felt home.

* * *

I fell backwards onto my new bed, sighing in relief. We'd arrived at the new house yesterday, and had spent the night unpacking by means of lots and lots of coffee. The kids were still wide awake and hyper; I was seriously regretting giving them caffeine. Fang and I had decided to go up to our room once the majority of the house was unpacked and sorted. We'd all been given a new rooming plan; me, Fang and Bree, Iggy and Gazzy, Phoenix, my mom, Ella, and Nudge and Angel. Phoenix was given his own room because there was one room remaining, and we all voted that Phoenix deserved it after the recent events.

Fang was lying next to me, his eyes closed. I could tell he was awake, his breathing was still heavy, and his fingers were twitching on his chest. I turned over to face him, reaching out a hand to stroke the side of his face.

Due to our freaky bird genes, he's already healed loads; the majority of his scratches were gone, except for the very deep ones, and his welts and burns were well on the way to recovery. He was still exceptionally skinny though. His black jeans were handing off of his hips, and his equally black t-shirt flopped onto the bed as he rolled over to face me too, exposing his protruding ribs. He'd filled out a tiny amount since we'd left Amsterdam, due to the vast amounts of food we'd managed to shovel down his throat while he wasn't sleeping, but he wouldn't be 100% back to health for about a week.

His midnight eyes opened, staring right into mine. It felt as though I was staring into his soul, cheesy as it sounds. I could read his every emotion, happiness, fear, pain, and something else covering the rest of it. I couldn't sense what it was, but it was obvious to me that there was something major bothering him. I was about to question him when he spoke.

"Where's Bree?" He questioned. His hand reached across the space that separated us to grab my limp hand.

"She's downstairs. Helping the girls unpack the living room." He raised an eyebrow. "Okay, Mom's unpacking and the girls are playing with Bree."

He chuckled, stroking the back of my hand with his thumb. His eyes flicked down to our hands, intertwined on the pale double bed. He went silent, his thumb moving in a regular rhythm.

"What's wrong, Fang?" I asked. His entire demeanour had changed; he somehow seemed suddenly sadder.

He looked up, and I held in a gasp at what I saw; his eyes were clouded over with guilt, his face was contorted with it. I didn't have a clue as to why this was. What on earth could he be feeling guilty about?

"Nothin'." He mumbled, looking down at our hands again, as if I would just leave it at that. Oh no.

I sat up, gently pulling him with me, careful to mind all of his sore spots. I pulled his chin up and forced him to look right into my eyes. They seemed curiously dead and flat now, with guilt swirling around in them.

"Fang." I took a deep breath. "What. Is. Wrong." I emphasized each word so he knew how serious I was. I didn't know whether it was something that had happened while he had been held hostage at the Itex headquarters, or something else entirely, but there was something up with Fang, and I was worried and determined to find out what it was.

"I told you, nothing is wrong, Max." He even gave an attempt at a smile. I gave him points for effort, but he was failing at convincing me. The smile was transparent and fake, his eyes still sad and guilt-stricken.

"Don't you lie to me Fang . . ." I paused as I tried to think of Fang's full name. " . .Ride. I can tell that something's wrong. It's obvious that you're feeling guilty about something. I don't know what it is, but I expect you to tell me!" I was giving him my dagger glare now; he knew he was in trouble if he didn't tell me. His face seemed to soften, as if he'd given up.

"When I was at Itex . . ." he began, his voice quiet and raspy. He was still looking down, and I grabbed his hands, holding them in mine. "You know that woman, Lucia?" I nodded. My _Aunt_. "Well." He paused, as if he was thinking of what to say.

I wasn't angry at him anymore; it was obvious that this was something serious. I lifted his head up to face me again, a soft smile of my face. I nodded; signalling for him to carry on. His eyes were refusing to meet mine; looking at the window, Bree's crib, the dresser.

"She . . . I'd just been tested on. I could barely move. You have to believe me, Max, I never intended for this to happen!" I suddenly met my eyes, as if it was essential I knew this.

"Fang, don't worry, I believe you. Please tell me what happened." I was seriously worried now. What on Earth could get him so worked up?

"I was lying there . . . They'd just thrown me in. I was hurting so much . . . so tired. She came in . . . whispered what she was going to do in my ear. There was a needle. She injected it and it . . . did stuff that let her . . ." he trailed of, his voice now a whisper.

I squeezed his hands, letting him know I was here. "Fang . . . What did she do to you?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

He looked directly into my eyes. "Max, I'm sorry, she . . . She . . ." he paused, taking a deep breath.

"She raped me."

**Scandal! Review!**

**Read 'When the Wind Blows' and 'The lake House'? Go read Two Flocks by b4k4 r3dux. It's a crossover between these books and Maximum Ride. Check out the awesomeness.**

**sorry its not all that long . . . i really wanted to get this out.**


	41. Whole

**Discalimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. **

**So guys, I loved the response from that last chapter! I got 11 reviews! It was awesome, you're all very opinionated, and it seems that Lucia should be cowering in fear right about now. Too right!**

**Oh, and too my American friends, if you want to see a really beautiful part of England, go to Cornwall!**

Chapter 41.

I think my jaw almost fell of my face, let alone dropped down. I could feel myself catching flies. Raped? How on earth could that be possible? It wasn't, was it? I couldn't see it myself, but Fang had said that she'd injected him with some kind of drugs that had allowed her to . . .well.

Almost instantly I was furious. My blood was singing with anger. How _dare_ she do that to Fang? What was her right? Anyone's right? It was sick, twisted and downright disgusting. Aunt? Screw that, that would mean she was family. Family have respect for each other. I was almost wishing she hadn't been killed in that explosion. It would have at least given me a chance to torture her to death. Bitch. My mind was instantly full of possible situations that would cause _Lucia_ to be put under the most pain possible. Call me psychotic, but no-one _hurts_, let alone _rapes_ any member of my family without paying the price.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by Fang moving away from me and shifting towards the wall. He sat on the bed, his knees drawn unto his chin, his back leaning against the smooth black surface. (Fang had gotten the first say in the colour scheme of the room, but thankfully the other three walls were white). His face was turned away from me, but I could still see how it was contorted with agony . . . and guilt? I shifted closer to him, pulling his arms away from his knees and holding his hands in my own once more.

"Fang . . ." I whispered. He seemed to be in a complete state; and I didn't want to set him off by saying the wrong thing. He turned his head again slightly, so he could face me more before speaking in a voice so quiet I had to strain to hear it, even with my raptor hearing.

"How can you even look at me . . ." His eyes flicked up to my face for a mere second before darting away again, almost as if he was afraid to look at me.

"Excuse me, Fang? What the hell do you mean by that?" I gripped his hands tighter, forcing him to look up at me again. He'd never been in such a sorry state before, and I was becoming more worried by the second.

He took a deep breath before answering me. "How can you look at me, Max? I let her do . . . _that_ to me. I'm weak, I've . . ." he paused for a second. "betrayed you."

I hissed as I took in a breath. "_Betrayed me? _Fang, what the hell are you _on_! She drugged you, tortured you, and god knows what else! Then she drugged you some more and fricken' _raped_ you! How on earth is that betraying me? I don't know what the hell they injected you with, but it's obviously sent your sanity out the bloody window! How the hell have you betrayed me, Fang?" I was breathing heavily by the end of my midget whispered rant. Fang was simply staring at me with a lost-puppy expression.

"Because I feel like I've cheated on you, Max! I feel like I let another woman sleep with me!" He stood up, his sad demeanour gone, and began to pace around the bed. "Do you know how guilty that makes me feel? I feel like I don't deserve you, I feel like I've _cheated._"

I leaped up from the bed also, stalking over to him. I grabbed his wrists and pinned them against the wall looking up at him; he was still unfortunately about a head taller than me). "Don't you _dare_ think like that again, Fang. That is not true. You could do absolutely nothing about it, and I don't want you feeling bad because of that. I won't let you, Fang, because I love you, you big idiot! I love you and nothing that that bitch did to you is ever gonna change that! You hear me?" I was full out glaring at him now, and he nodded, a tiny smile of his face. We looked at each other. My glare eventually faded and a smile graced my features too.

Without warning he leaned down to connect his lips to mine. He worked his hands free of my clutches and grasped my shoulders, flipping us round so he was pinning me to the wall. He held my wrists above my head and proceeded to kiss the life out of me. His body was pressed completely against mine, holding my body about a foot of off the ground. My wrists were still above my head, and to take some of the pressure of off them I wrapped my legs around Fangs waist.

I heard him groan his appreciation before moving his mouth to the underside of my jaw. I took in deep lungful's of air and tried not to moan as he sucked furiously on my neck. I wanted to tell him to stop; we didn't want another Bree, but it felt too good to form a coherent sentence. I moved my neck away from his mouth so he could kiss me again. I felt him deepen the kiss, and I returned it with enthusiasm. I hadn't kissed him in so long, and I was craving it.

I let out an involuntary moan when he seemed to press even closer against me. I didn't want this to end.

So of course, Nudge just had to burst through the door at that exact moment.

I could have died right there and then.

"Max! Max! I thin- Oh. Ew! Ew Ew Ew Ew! Max!" Fang leaped away from me like he'd been electrocuted, leaving me to fall onto the floor with a thud. I gave him a glare from where I was slumped against the wall, and he smirked at me. I discreetly flipped him off before turning to Nudge, who was still standing in the doorway, her face bright red.

"Yes, Nudge, what did you want?" I said through clenched teeth. I wasn't particularly angry, but I _was_ extremely pissed off at my time with Fang being cut short.

Nudge seemed to return to her normal state, seemingly forgetting about what she had walked in on.

"Oh yeah! Max, I think I'm dying." I said it so bluntly. She gone from a peppy 'oh yeah' to looking as if she was going to die any moment. Which, obviously, she thought she was.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"Yeah! ZOMG Max, I was just at the toilet and then once I'd finished there was blood and –"

"Oh for the love of all that's holy." I muttered. Fang chuckled.

I stood up like a shot and walked over to her, grabbing her arm and leading her out of the bedroom where Fang was snickering. "Max, what is it? Am I going to die?" Nudge looked up at me, her dark brown eyes wide and nervous. I simply shook my head before heading to the bathroom to give her a little chat.

* * *

"Iggy, just piss off!" I could hear Nudge screaming at him from the other side of the bloody house. I could tell that the . . . recent events were having an effect on her. I think Iggy was trying to tell Nudge to stop eating all of my Mom's cookies because dinner was in about ten minutes. It wasn't going down very well. Iggy should have learnt from me; never refuse a girl cookies at a certain time of the month. Fang was chuckling to himself as he heard Nudge's yell, obviously thinking the same thing.

I glanced at him. "Yeah, you can laugh now, but you won't be when Bree's like this." His face fell. He looked down at our daughter, who was playing in-between us on some kind of play mat thing.

"I deal with you, don't I?" I glared at him, slapping his arm playfully.

"That may be, but she's gonna have yours and my temper combined." He looked physically scared at that thought, and I was the one to chuckle.

"IGGY, I SAID JUST PISS. OFF." Our eyes connected as Nudges yell reverberated through the house.

"I think we'd better go and save him, god knows what kind of a state he's in at the moment." I said, picking up Bree. She gave a giggle.

"Dada!" She reached up and grabbed onto a lock of my hair, grinning as much as a baby can. I smiled down at her.

"Baby, when are you gonna learn to say Momma? Huh? You should learn to say it, it's much cooler that Dada. Yeah? Try it. Mooommmaaaa." I enunciated the word slowly, and waited for my daughter to repeat it. She just looked up at me with her gorgeous brown eyes before saying,

"Dada." I could hear Fang burst into laughter behind me as we finally walked into the kitchen. The whole of the family was there; Mom and Ella were helping Iggy cook dinner, and I certainly didn't miss how Iggy would frequently brush his hands along Ella's arm, Gazzy, Angel and Phoenix were all playing Monopoly on the floor of the adjoining living room, and Nudge was stood by the counter, her arms crossed, giving Iggy the evil eye. I snickered at her expression.

I turned round to give my squirming baby to Fang before facing her once more. "What's wrong, honey?" I questioned.

She turned to face me. "Iggy won't let me eat the cookies." She said it as if he's just blown up the world or something. Biting on my lip to hold in my laughter (I knew all too well how she was feeing) I simply patted her on the shoulder as I moved into the living room, Fang behind me. "Don't worry, you can have some once we've had the food." I could hear her huffing.

I collapsed on one of the soft leather couches that had just been loaded into our new home three days before. I watched as Total snuggled next to Angel on the floor. On the way back from Amsterdam, I'd given Angel and Phoenix permission to take a detour over to France to collect Total and Akila from their honeymoon. Phoenix had been the unlucky bird-kid to carry her to the plane in London, but he'd managed to do it with the extra strength his lion genes gave him. Angel was exceptionally pleased.

I grinned as I remembered Totals reaction to Bree; he's simply stared at her for a few moments, before trotting away to Akila with a mutter of "I knew this was gonna happen."

I leaned into Fang's side as I watched my family all around me. Bree gurgled and pulled out a handful of Fangs hair beside me. I laughed at his shocked expression.

And I finally felt whole again.

**Okay, this isn't the last chapter! Noooo ;) I would love to get to 300 before I do get there though! Please review my lovelies! **


	42. This is the Final Goodbye

**Disclaimer: no own, dude.**

**HEY! So this isn't your favorite British writer today. This is some random American, also known as b4k4-r3dux :D So, blackiee's my British friend, and she made me really happy by letting me WRITE A CHAPTER of the amazingness otherwise known as Seven For A Secret. :D :D :D So I got really psyched, and wrote it :) Sorry if it sounds all different, since I'm American and obviously not blackiee, but alright. So, enjoy!**

I woke up the next morning feeling so incredibly rested, for once in my life. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I was actually able to sleep in a bed, and that Bree hadn't kept me up all night, but I was feeling pretty good. Hungry, though.

However, keeping with the not-sucking theme of the day so far, when I entered the kitchen, my flock was already up. Iggy was at the stove, flipping something that smelled heavenly. Fang was leaning against the counter, keeping watch over Bree as she crawled around Iggy's legs. Akila was eating a mix of instant waffles and dog kibble out of a silver bowl, but Total had a plate of heavily syrupped waffles on the floor next to her. Nudge and Angel sat at the table drinking coffee, and Gazzy was fiddling with something that had wires, spread over the placemat. My mom and Ella were still sleeping. They, being somewhat normal humans, needed more sleep that us, the bird kids that had been on the run for a long time, sleeping only when we could manage. Phoenix was also still in bed. He was still recovering some.

"That smells amazing, Ig," I said appreciatively. "How're you feeling, Nudge?"

"Better," she said. "I'm not dying anymore."

I laughed. "That's good. I don't want any of you dying on me." I fingered Gazzy's wires, causing him to jump and look up from what he had been doing. "So that means, don't blow up the entire house."

"It doesn't even have a charge yet!" he protested.

"Well, don't make it have one." He grinned at me as only a nine-year-old can and put the tangle of colored wires back in the pocket of his zip-up sweatshirt.

"Sit down," commanded Iggy. "Chow's up." I scooped up Bree and put her in the high chair that Mom had thoughtfully gotten for us before sitting down next to Fang. His leg brushed mine under the table, and I, still in the athletic shorts and t-shirt I had slept in, shuddered. He gave me an unholy half-smile before turning his attention to the ridiculous pile of pancakes that Iggy was placing on the table.

"Ugh, yes," Nudge moaned in delight, taking four. I cut one in half and put it on Bree's tray. She was so young, but already had almost a full set of teeth and could eat solid food with no problem. "Dada!" she yelled in delight as she threw a piece of pancake at him. His expression when it hit his temple made the whole table laugh.

"For once," he said, returning the chunk to her tray, "I'd prefer you to torture your mother." She gave him a dazzling smile, almost as if she could understand her, before chucking another piece at me.

"Happy?" I asked Fang as I picked it off my shoulder. He rolled his eyes with a twitch of his mouth and took pancakes for himself, then slid four onto my plate. I glopped on some syrup and dug in, occasionally feeding Bree a piece.

"Can we go flying today?" asked Angel, chewing on a forkful of breakfast before taking a sip of orange juice.

"Yeah," I said. "Sounds good. Take Bree along." It was feeling like it would be a pretty good day today. A normal day. When we could fly with no worries of the School or fighting or...Lucia. I quickly shoved a mouthful of pancake down to distract me. It wouldn't do to ruin my day by dwelling on Fang's forcibly removed monogamy. "Total? What about you? We could get someone to carry Akila..."

"No," he said. "There's a park not far from here that Angel found for me on Google. Akila and I were thinking of populating it today."

"Alright then," I said. "Sounds good." I kept eating, smiling as the warm pancakes filled my empty stomach. My wings extended out the torn, ragged back of my t-shirt, just a little, enough to be comfortable. I didn't have to clamp them against my spine. This would be the first real flight, like flight for pleasure, we had taken as a family since Bree had been born.

"Today's going to be so great," Nudge said appreciatively, finishing her fifth pancake and reaching for another.

"Yep," I agreed, then turned toward the door. "He lives!"

Phoenix came through the door, one clawed hand rubbing his eyes. "H-hi guys," he yawned. "Breakfast...smells good." With his eyes still half-shut, he got a plate out of a cabinet and took two pancakes, scooping them into his mouth with mechanical motions. Nudge poured him a cup of coffee and he began to wake up a little. "What's happening today?"

"We're going flying," piped up Angel happily, running her finger over the edge of the plate to lick the syrup off it.

"Sounds good," grumbled Phoenix, downing his coffee. His eyes opened all the way, and only then was he fully awake. "When do we leave?"

"Now?" Angel asked me. "Can we go now? I want to fly, Max, please?" Bree squealed, seemingly in agreement. I picked her up out of her high chair.

"Sure," I said. "Let me just change Bree and we'll go." I motioned with my head for Fang to follow me, and he did, putting his plate in the sink.

"Flying," said Fang, getting a little too close for total comfort. I could feel his breath on my neck. Bree reached up and bopped him on the nose, and he laughed into my hair.

"Uh huh," I said, turning around to kiss him on the jaw, which was as high as I could reach. "It's going to be great."

"Of course it is," he breathed, and I resisted the impulse to pin him against the wall and start making out with him right then, Bree still in my arms. Instead, I took Bree back into her bedroom, laying her on the changing table. Her eyes, which were beginning to look more and more like Fang's, stared up at me with trust as I changed her. She didn't cry or fight me, which officially made her the coolest baby ever. I turned her over for a minute, so her little wings were showing. They were black like Fang's, with tips of white at the very ends of the primary feathers. They weren't big enough for her to fly with yet, but I could tell it would only be a matter of time. They were almost a two-foot span already. I wondered when I would be able to teach her to fly.

I rifled through her small bag, only to discover that all of her clothes were, again, black. I looked up at Fang, exasperated. "There are other colors in this world."

"Old habits die hard."

I rolled my eyes and pulled out a black dress with midnight blue swirls around the bottom and dressed her in it. She really did look good, but I would never admit it to Fang, the ebony addict that he was. "Ready for anything, huh, baby?" She grinned up at me, and I counted her teeth. There were ten already.

"All set?" Fang questioned, picking up Bree and putting her on his broad shoulders. She laughed and slumped over his head, grabbing the skin on his cheeks. I burst out laughing and Fang glared at me. Except the glare was totally ruined by the fact that his eyes were all pooched up by Bree's chubby hands, and it really just made me laugh harder.  
"Let's go," I said, once I had control of myself. Fang followed me out the door, stooping to make sure Bree didn't hit her head on the low door frame. When we were out in the hall, he lifted her off his shoulders and held her against his hip instead. She leaned forward and planted a syrupy kiss on his cheek. His mouth turned up in a real smile, a smile of incredible happiness, and I put my arm around him as we headed toward my bedroom.

"I would appreciate it if you would remain outside," I told Fang sternly, removing my arm. His quirked his mouth and nodded, swinging Bree up over his head as he leaned against the wall outside my door. I hurried into a pair of jeans with holes in the knees and the first t-shirt I found, trading my bare feet for a pair of purple Converse, lacing them up and running a brush through my hair. When I came back out, Bree wasn't with Fang.

"Nudge took her," Fang said. "Wanted to do something with her hair."

"Her hair isn't even long enough to brush."

"That was my point. But she insisted." Fang drew me in by my waist, slipping his hand through one of the slits in the back of my t-shirt, wending his fingers past the folded wings to my skin. I kissed him twice, then laughed and pulled away.

"Come on," I said. "Time to fly." And then I headed off down the hall, with him close behind me.

The day was perfect.

I left a hurriedly scribbled note on the kitchen table for my mom and then we all climbed out the picture window, shimmying up the gutter pipe and pulling ourselves over the edge of the shingles. Roof takeoffs were always so much more fun than running ones, and if they were available, we would do them. I climbed up first, then Fang handed me Bree and I clasped her against my chest.

"Ready?" I asked, once the whole flock was perched on the slope of the black-shingled roof.

"Ready," they chorused, and I could feel a warm feeling spreading through me. A feeling of pleasure. Of happiness.

"Alright," I said. "One...two...three!"

Five quick running steps and Fang and I tossed our wings out, the feathers nearly touching. Iggy and Phoenix followed, immediately tailed by Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel. Bree squealed in delight and her small wings unfolded out of the slits that Fang had cut in the dress with his knife, fluttering like she wanted to fly too. I didn't dare let her go, though.

"Whee!" Nudge whooped, going into an incredible dive, even as we climbed higher and higher into the sky. The air became thinner, and I inhaled deeply. The oxygen just tasted so much...cleaner, up here, somehow. Fresher. More delicious. Mmn.

"Here," said Fang, holding out his arms. "Go dive. I can tell you want to." I grinned at the way he always seemed to read my mind and handed Bree over carefully, having a two-second moment of panic with the second that she left my arms and passed into Fang's. But then his arms were tightly around her, secure, and I smiled gratefully at him, darting up to join Nudge, who was flying a thousand feet above the rest of us. She linked her fingers in mine and we dived through the sky together, feeling the wind whip back our hair. We pulled out of the dive, smiling like giddy fools and pushing our tangled hair behind our ears, rejoining the rest of the flock. Iggy and Gazzy were swooping around, whacking each other like idiots with their sneakers, fists, and wings. I rolled my eyes. They never would quit.

We flew over forests and even a lake, pausing for a minute to dip low enough to skim our toes across it, lacing our sneakers around our neck so we wouldn't have to hold them. All too soon, the flock was hungry. I looked at a watch. It was past noon already.

"Let's fly into a city," I said, feeling daring. "We can get something there."

"Okay," said Nudge. "Can we go somewhere with apple pie?"

"Sounds good to me," I said appreciatively, and we angled west, heading toward a city that was just ten miles in the distance.

"Max!" Angel called as we flew nearer the city. "You see the building on the edge? The one with like ten stories?"

"Yeah," I called back. "What about it?"

"That's one of the CSM offices! Your mom is in there."

I grinned. Better and better. "Anyone up for a picnic on a roof?"

"I'm in," said Phoenix. "As long as it involves food. I'm starving."

"I know. I am, too." We landed on the outskirts of the city and just sort of walked right in. There was a fast food place near the edge, so we stopped in there. I pulled out my wallet, helpfully given to me by dear old Mom, and we headed in.

The food smell made my stomach growl. We ordered our massive amount of food to go, waited for the waitresses to finish cooing over Bree, and headed straight back out of the city, taking off and landing on the roof of the building Angel had pointed out. No sooner had we landed than my mother came out a door cut into the bottom of a flight of steps. I looked at Angel, and she smiled, letting me know that she had, indeed, told my mother we were coming.

"Hi, Max," said my mom, pulling me into a hug. "You guys having a good time?"

"The best," said Gazzy through a mouthful of fries, which he had pulled out of his bag. I set my and Bree's food on the ground and knelt, pulling out a small Styrofoam container of chicken nuggets for her and unwrapping my hamburger. Then we were all lounging on the rooftop. My mother had taken a half-hour break off work for us. She was the boss lady, after all. There wasn't anything anyone could do about it.

"I'm glad you guys don't have to worry for a while," she said, staring off into the distance, her arms wrapped around her knees.

"Me too," I said, then reality-checked both myself and her. "Of course, we know it won't last. I'm sure there'll be something for me to worry about in the very near future." She laughed and nodded.

"I'm done," announced Iggy, putting his trash back into the bag.

"I can take in the trash when everyone's finished," my mom offered helpfully, and I smiled at just how freaking amazing she was. Iggy, Phoenix, Gazzy, and Angel started a game of tag, running around the roof. Bree squirmed in Fang's arms, wanting to join them, but Fang held her. He didn't want her to accidentally run off the roof.

"Sh," I said to her, patting her on the back and sitting cross-legged next to Fang, leaning against him to kiss Bree on the forehead. She looked at me with heart-melting dark brown eyes and reached her arms out toward me. I laughed and took her from Fang, bouncing her on my legs, making her squeal in laughter. Fang smiled. Bree seemed to be the only thing that could make him smile more than once a year. Besides me, of course.

I watched idly as Iggy ran his fingers along the smooth edge of the roof, staring out at the infinity that he could now see. A newspaper floated by, on the wind, and he squinted at it, then tensed. As I watched him, he jumped off the side and caught it, getting back to the roof with two quick strokes of his wings and pinning it against the cement at his feet.  
"Max," he called. "Come and see this."

I looked at Fang, shrugged, then got up, holding Bree with one arm, brushing dirt off my jeans with the other, heading over toward Iggy. The others, seeing our walk over, followed, with my mother bringing up the rear.

"What is it, Ig?" I asked when we were close enough. He handed me the section of the newspaper, which consisted of the front and back page and the inner page of both of them, with all the middle parts removed. I turned to the front page.

EXPLOSION! the headline simply read. Oh. Oh dear.

An unexplained explosion in the Netherlands has left two men dead and a research facility in ruins. Bodies of unidentified non-humans were discovered as well...

"Wait," Nudge said as I read it out loud. "It said two men dead..." My eyes widened as I got her meaning. I quickly scanned the rest of the article, as fast as I could. There was no mention of the body of a woman found anywhere. Not even a woman in fragments.

"So that means..." Phoenix said, looking conflicted. She was his mother, after all.

"Lucia's alive," Fang said in the quietest voice I had ever heard him speak in. I looked at him and his face was frozen in shock. We were all shaken. Bree sensed the mood and arched her back, wailing softly.

That bitch.

Best day ever suitably ruined.

"Don't worry about her, Max," said Angel, slipping her hand in mine. "What will be...will be." I smiled at her seven-year-old philosophy party, handed Bree to Iggy, and wrapped Angel in my arms. She craned her neck up to kiss me on the neck.

And that's when shit really hit the fan.

There was a far-off crack, which I only half paid attention to, because in a city, it could be anything. But a second later, Angel, my Angel, fell out of my arms and was down on the cement, staining the pale grey bright crimson...  
With her blood!

And then another crack...and my mother grabbed one of her arms, stumbling back...

"Angel!" I screamed and knelt next to her. "Mom...please...help her...please, come on, Mom!" My mother dropped next to me and started scrabbling at Angel's fine neck with her uninjured hand, the source of the blood. My baby was spurting blood all over the flock!

"Her carotid's hit..." muttered my mother, tears streaming down her face, both from pain and disbelief.

"Maax?" Angel's pitiful voice reached my ears.

"Hold on, baby, it's okay, don't worry," I said. "You're okay, it's okay, shh, shh..."

"Doctor Martinez thinks that I'm going to die," she said faintly.

"Just lie back, baby girl. You'll be fine. Come on, Angel. Look at me. That's it..."

My mother glanced up at me and I saw all the answer I needed in her eyes. Hot tears began falling down my face, dropping into insignificant wet patches where the ground was not covered in scarlet. I reached down and hugged my Angel as best I could, sobbing when Fang joined me, feeling Iggy and Nudge each take one of her stained hands, and Gazzy stroking her hair. She opened her blue eyes and looked at me, and in that one second I saw a world of pain...but acceptance.

Then her eyes closed again.

"NO!" I screamed, the sound tearing my throat. "NO, ANGEL! ANGEL! NO, PLEASE! PLEASE!" My voice broke and I started sobbing again, choking on my own tears. "P-pl-please, Angel..."

I saw Angel as a tiny baby, sleeping uncomfortably in her dog crate back at the lab. Her joyous face as we escaped, almost like she knew that we were free. Teaching her to fly, to read, to eat by herself, holding her when Jeb left and she was crying. Her whole life played in a reel in my mind, her swearing and me telling myself to watch my language, her fighting Erasers, the tiniest warrior alive, controlling that woman's mind to make her buy Celeste for her. Idly, I wondered where Celeste was now...and whether she could comfort Angel now.

My mom put two fingers to Angel's neck and looked up at me, shaking her head, her face white as a sheet from blood loss. I had time to sob one more time before incredible, forceful, pure, agonizing rage hit me like a stampeding train. My entire vision turned red, like blood was pouring into my eyes, and I stood up, almost knocking Gazzy over, and scanned the horizon, looking for the bastards that had killed my Angel.

And I zeroed in on a man on a roof.

With a rifle in his grip.

"Fang!" I shrieked, then dove off the roof, nearly throwing up with the adrenaline and incredible anger shooting all over me, not caring if anyone saw me, not caring about anything at all. I could hear him take off behind me. The blood covering me made me even more angry, as I glanced down at my stained wrists.

Fang shot ahead of me, flying so fast his wings were a blur. I caught up to him and we landed on either side of the man, who had a gun trained toward us. I immediately slammed a punch in the side of his head, and his hand went limp on the trigger. Fang yanked the rifle away and threw it off the roof. As it hit the ground, I could hear a crack as it discharged, and then people were screaming. Fang slammed the man into the ground, on his pathetic back, and I got a good look at him for the first time.

He was a medium-built man, with thick brown hair and a mustache, mean-looking blue eyes. He snarled up at me. "That was meant for you," he ground out, choking as Fang's boot ground into his neck. "You...meddling..."

"Who are you," I demanded, without a question mark, because I intended to get an answer no matter what I would have to do for it.

"You don't need to know that," he said. With one swift motion, I pulled the knife off of Fang's belt, flicked it open, and pressed it hard against the first joint of the bastard's pinky finger. He started groaning and sweating.

"Max," Fang said, surprised.

"I want to know who killed Angel," I said, my voice shaking with my anger. "I want him dead. But first I want to know who he is so we can kill everybody who was involved." I had never wanted to just end someone as much in my life, but I had to find out.

"Who are you," I demanded again. The man remained silent, still, and I pressed the knife into his arm. Blood started seeping out of the wound. Under normal circumstances, Fang would have stopped me, but he had the same crazed look in his eyes that I no doubt did.

"Who are you?" Fang shook the man's shoulders. The man spit straight into Fang's face. Fang roared in frustration and kicked him in the side of the head. I heard his jawbone crack, and felt nothing but vindictive pleasure. I used the knife again, this time on the crook of his elbow, and blood started pooling on the floor.

"It'll be something more painful than your arm next time," I said, positioning the knife directly above the area where no man wants to be sliced. His eyes widened a little. Good. I'd gotten to him.

"Hank Getz," he gasped, trying to break Fang's hold against his arms, to no avail.

"I don't care about your name," I said. "Who are you? Who are you working for?"

"N-" he started to say, and I brought the knife a little closer. I saw Fang wince slightly. "I-Itex...I'm the only one left...of the Re-Generation plan...please, don't hurt...get away from me!"

I looked at Fang. "We found out." He nodded, and I turned back to the man, bringing down the knife anyway. He yelled out, his face screwing up in pain as blood came from another part of his anatomy. Fang stomped on his solar plexus, and he turned and threw up on the floor. He lay there, curling pathetically. I had a split second of hesitation for him, before the rage took over again.

"This is for Angel," I whispered, lifted my foot back, and kicked him as hard as I could. His neck broke, and he jerked once and was still. Sirens were starting to blare below. I turned and ran, flying blindly off the roof, back to Angel, back to Bree, back to my family, the only ones I had in the world, with Fang on my other side, his face set in a satisfied grimace. There was a collective gasp from people down below, but I didn't care now. What mattered anymore? One of my only friends and family was dead. Angel was gone.

"I love you," Fang murmured to me, his low voice mingling with the cool wind on our faces. "We'll be okay."

"I know," I said through my tears.

We flew back to the roof where my flock huddled over Angel, sobbing. My mother clutched her arm, swaying even as she sat. She looked like she would pass out at any moment.

"We'll take her," Iggy said, and he and Phoenix lifted my mother just as she lost consciousness. I nodded and picked up Angel, leaving Fang to take Bree. I cradled the tiny body in my arms, stroking her small lips and nose, hugging her to me.  
"Come on, baby," I whispered to her. "We're going home."

And we took off from the roof, ignoring the sirens and people down below. I heard Bree wail once, then whisper "'Gelly?" And I nearly lost it again, because the child in my arms was never coming back, never going to spread her pure white wings and fly again.

And then I hoped that wasn't true. I didn't know what I believed in the way of God and heaven and hell, but I hoped that Angel would still fly. That Angel would become an angel, despite all the bad things we'd been driven to do. I held that hope like I held her in my arms, and hoped that she would never hurt again.

"Hospital...down below..." muttered my mother softly, regaining consciousness long enough to arch her arm down to point at a complex of buildings that looked unmistakably hospital-ish.

"Okay, go on down," I told my flock, my voice cracking. We landed behind the hospital, trying not to be seen by the multitudes of cop cars. By the sound of it, they had found the body of the sniper. Good.

We ran in the doors of the emergency wing, and it was chaos. Nurses immediately swarmed us when they saw all the blood, taking my mother from Iggy and Phoenix and laying her on a gurney. When one tried to take Angel from me, I gasped and hit her in the jaw with a crack. She staggered back, and Fang got in between us.

"Max!" he shouted into my face. "Come on, Max...there's nothing you can do for her anymore...let her go, Max. Let her go, sweetheart."

"No..." I whispered. Fang set Bree down and tried to take Angel from me. I clung to her, sobbing.

"Max, come on," he murmured in my ear. "It's over."

It killed me to let Angel go, but I surrendered her small form to Fang, who laid her down on another gurney that was being brought up, gently, arranging her golden-streaked-with-red hair around her. Somehow I stumbled into his arms, and then I lost it, sobbing into Fang's neck, nearly retching with the force of the sobs wracking my frame. He held me tight, and then Nudge joined us, and I sobbed because I would never feel Angel's small hands hugging me, comforting me, again. Somehow I slid to the floor, breaking all of their holds, burying my face in my hands. I felt two little hands on my shoulders, and I looked up to see Bree, supporting herself by holding onto me, looking into my face with worried eyes.

"Mama?" she whispered, and I pulled her into my arms, holding her tight, never wanting to let her go. Like I had let Angel go. 

**IMPORTANT A/N!**

**So guys. This is it. I can't believe I've actually managed to write a whole story . . . I actually feel kinda sad . . . **** But I have some thankyou's! Yes, it is corny, but I don't care. First of all, the amazing b4k4 r3dux! She absolutely rocks, and wrote this amazing chapter for you all. Now go check out her profile! Then Absidoodle. She willingly put up with me forcing her to read each chapter as I put it up at lunchtimes. Love ya! And also, to everyone who has reviewed and read my story! You guys just make me all so happy, I love all of you! And I would love it if, for this last chapter, if you have reviewed or not, I would like you to review. First, to say just how amazing this chapter was! And also about the story as a whole. Thanks! Look out for the sequel soon :D **

**x**


	43. Sequel

Hey Guys!

I just wanted to let you know that I've just uploaded the first chapter of Seven For A Secret's sequel, 'Secrets and Lies'.

You can click on the link here:

www (dot) fanfiction (dot) net/s/6466682/1/Secrets_And_Lies

just wth no spaces an .'s

thanks! :)


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